KHOU 11 Houston viewers won’t be seeing one staple of the news show for some time. Weekend evening anchor and reporter Marcelino Benito told viewers on May 31 that he’s taking a leave of absence following the death of his mother six weeks ago from Alzheimer’s disease, with Benito sharing that he needs time to “focus on myself” and “on my grief.”
“Losing my mom has really shaken me,” Benito said in a video posted to Facebook. “She was a very, very important person in my life. I wouldn’t be in this position that I am now without her and her lessons and the type of mom she was.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Benito, who was promoted to weekend anchor in January 2023, announced his mother’s passing on April 11, sharing in an emotional Instagram post, “Broken. Gutted. Numb. It’s how I feel as I try to find the strength to write these words. We lost my mom yesterday morning and her loss is crippling… For 3 years alongside my dad and brother, we helplessly watched the Alzheimers cause my mother to slowly fade away. But one thing the disease was unable to take away was my mom’s beautiful smile and above all, her relentless love for her sons, my dad, precious granddaughter and daughter-in-law.”
Benito said in his May 31 update that he feels he hasn’t been able to give “110%” while at the station or for his family as he continues to mourn his mother’s passing. The news anchor told viewers that he needs time away from the “stress and demands” of his job, sharing, “I need time to focus on myself and on my family and on my pain, on focusing on my grief.”
“You have to feel the pain and hope to get to the other side. And so that’s what I’m going to do,” Benito announced. “I’m making this decision with the full support of my bosses here at KHOU, who have been extremely supportive and had my back from the moment my mom became ill and continue to have my back today.”
Benito graduated from Cypress Falls High School and went on to graduate from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He began his career in broadcast journalism at WLNS in Lansing, Michigan before later working as a weekend anchor/reporter at KSMB-TV. He spent KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona before returning to Houston, where he joined the team at KHOU 11 Houston in 2014. In January, Benito was promoted to weekend news anchor.
