‘Today’: Sheinelle Jones and Jenna Bush Cry During Jones’ ‘Jenna & Friends’ Hosting Debut

Sheinelle Jones made her Today With Jenna & Friends co-hosting debut, and there were tons of tears. Jones made her official return to Today on September 5 after taking an extended leave since December 2024 amid her husband’s battle with brain cancer and eventual death.

During the episode, Jenna Bush Hager recalled how she and Jones used to fill in for former hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford during their show. Kotb exited Today earlier this year.

Things turned emotional as they discussedJones’ husband, Uche Ojeh, who died of brain cancer at the age of 45 in May. “You were gone, and yet, when you came back, it was like no time was gone. It feels like you’ve been here the whole summer,” Bush Hager said, with Jones adding, “It feels like I was never gone, and then, it also feels like it was nine months.”

Bush Hager praised Jones for her strength during such a difficult time. “I’ve never met anybody stronger,” she gushed. “I just can’t sit here and sit back and not say this to you. Watching you over the last year has been remarkable,” she said. “And like when you just said, ‘I want to give him the best sendoff,’ I remember sitting at his funeral, thinking — and I’ve been to, like, state funerals, and such — ‘There’s never been a more beautiful funeral.’ Never. And you did that.”

Jones told the audience and viewers that a song suggestion from Bush Hager was instrumental during the height of her grief. “You sent me a text, and you sent me a song, and it was by Blessing [Offor]. I had never heard of him,” she shared. “And there’s a part that says, ‘I know there’s gonna be some brighter days / I swear that love will find you in your pain / I feel it in me, like the beating of life in my veins / I know there’s gonna be some brighter days.’ And I just would play that over and over and over because the concept of love finding you in your pain, that’s what this is.”

Jones will continue in the co-hosting seat on Bush Hager’s Jenna & Friends co-host through Friday, September 26.