Sheinelle Jones will remain absent from Today in the aftermath of her husband Uche Ojeh’s death.
“There is no timing on when she will be back,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. “Everyone is shocked and just so sad. Everyone can’t imagine what she’s gone through. She left in December and [has] been so quiet [and] focusing on her family.”
The insider noted that “nobody knew what was going on except very select people, the top executives and the main anchors.”
Jones, 47, has been absent from Today since December 2024. The following month, she explained via Instagram that she was taking a break from the NBC morning show to “deal with a family health matter.”
Details about the health issue were unknown until Savannah Guthrie announced on Friday, May 23, that Ojeh had died at age 45 after a private battle with an “aggressive form of brain cancer” known as glioblastoma.
“There are no words for the pain that we feel for Sheinelle and their three young children. Uche was an incredible person. We all loved him,” Guthrie, 53, said on air. (Jones and Ojeh shared son Kayin, 15, and twins Clara and Uche, 12.)
Accompanying the announcement was a video package about Jones and Ojeh’s relationship. The couple met in the ‘90s when Jones gave her future husband a tour of Northwestern University. Ojeh popped the question on Northwestern’s campus eight years into their relationship, and the two tied the knot in Jones’ hometown of Philadelphia in 2007.
They became parents with the birth of Katin in 2009, followed by Clara and Uche three years later. The couple were each other’s biggest supporters over the years, with Uche cheering on his wife as she ran her first New York City marathon in 2023 and Jones supporting him as he completed a triathlon earlier that year.
Following the video package, Jones’ Today colleagues paid tribute to their late friend on-air. “We just want to say Sheinelle, Kayin, little Uche and Clara, the Ojeh family, we are with you,” Guthrie stated. “We love you. You are our family, and we are just sending all of our love to you right now.”
Craig Melvin shared that Ojeh loved his three kids “more than anything else in this world,” adding, “[He] was just so proud. He was that dad that was on the sideline at every soccer game, he was at all the concerts and recitals. He was that guy.”
Al Roker described Ojeh as a “private guy” who was “wickedly funny” and “humble,” while Jenna Bush Hager praised Jones for finding “the grace in the grief” amid her family’s difficult time.
Jones broke her silence on her husband’s death by sharing the Today cast’s Friday tributes via Instagram. “Thank you, for all of your love and support ❤️,” she wrote alongside the show clip.
