Tragic Details About The Death Of Sheinelle Jones' Husband

In May 2025, Sheinelle Jones announced the heartbreaking news that she had lost her husband, Uche Ojeh, had died. The "Today" show host's partner was 45. Jones' colleague, Savannah Guthrie, broke the news on air amid Jones' months-long absence from the newsroom, telling "Today" audiences, "With profound sadness, we share this morning that Uche Ojeh ... passed away after a courageous battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma."

Ojeh was diagnosed in the fall of 2023, just weeks before Jones ran the New York City Marathon, as she explained to Guthrie in her first interview back in the public eye in September 2025. Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of malignant brain tumor, with only a 5.6% survival rate in adults over 40, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. The family dealt with the tragic diagnosis privately, with Jones staying on air until January 2025, when she announced on Instagram that she would be taking a leave of absence from NBC News to "deal with a family health matter." It wasn't until his death that the public was made privy to Ojeh's fatal cancer diagnosis.

In the "Today" show's announcement, Guthrie touched on Ojeh and Jones' life together, which began at Northwestern University when they were teenagers. After nearly a decade of dating, Ojeh proposed to his sweetheart at their alma mater, and the pair married in 2007. He was survived by Jones and their three children, Kayin, Clara, and Uche.

The grief that came in the aftermath of Sheinelle Jones' tragic, real-life story is unimaginable. But the news personality has learned how to cope with such profound sadness. "Grief is like a wave," she told Savannah Guthrie in her September 2025 interview. "And what I've told my kids is, 'it's almost like rain can't last forever.' And so when the rain comes, in some ways I've learned to just look up at the rain and let it be a cleansing rain." Jones said that, instead of holding back her emotions, she has let herself sit in the grief when it rears its head, allowing the tears to flow whenever they are needed.

Jones returned to work in September 2025. She reunited with friends, dressed as Beyoncé for the "Today" show's 2025 Halloween episode, and was even announced as Jenna Bush Hager's co-host for the show's fourth hour. But one memorable moment during her first months back after Uche Ojeh's death was her interview with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for their film, "Wicked: For Good." Chatting with the movie's stars, Jones opened up about what the sequel to 2024's "Wicked" did for her grieving journey. "When I went to the theater to screen this movie, it was transcendent for me in a way I didn't know I needed," she said (via Instagram). Jones noted how watching Alphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande), and the actors themselves, show courage and vulnerability within the Oz universe and beyond the film's set inspired the journalist in her own path to healing.