Real-Life Love
Who Was Sheinelle Jones’ Husband? All About Uche Ojeh & the ‘Today’ Host’s Marriage
After a nine-month absence, Sheinelle Jones will resume her TODAY co-hosting duties on Friday, September 5.
Viewers noticed Jones’ departure in December 2024, but the journalist didn’t reveal the cause until a few weeks later, citing a “family health matter.” The following May, TODAY anchors notified viewers that Jones’ husband had died at 45 years old.
“With profound sadness, we share this morning that Uche Ojeh, the husband of our friend and TODAY co-host Sheinelle Jones, has passed away after a courageous battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma,” Savannah Guthrie said. “Uche was an incredible person. We all loved him.”
Upon her return, Jones will be interviewed by Guthrie about her loss and the “beautiful nightmare” that she’s faced. Ahead of her appearance, Swooon did a deep dive into Jones and Ojeh’s love story.
Who was Sheinelle Jones’ husband?
Ojeh, who Guthrie described as “a remarkable man who was Sheinelle’s perfect partner in life,” hailed from Nigeria. Like his wife, Ojeh attended Northwestern University, but rather than studying journalism, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science with an economics concentration in 2001.
According to Ojeh’s LinkedIn, he went on to work as a consultant for IBM and Accenture, and he later became the managing partner of UAO Consulting. He worked there from 2008 until his death in 2025.
Ojeh was also interested in athletics. In October 2023, Jones celebrated her husband completing a triathlon. “It’s something he’s always wanted to do… and he trained really hard for it,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
How long were Sheinelle Jones & Uche Ojeh married?
Jones and Ojeh wed in 2007. The ceremony took place in her hometown of Philadelphia, and Ojeh’s proposal came after eight years of long distance dating, Jones revealed during a TODAY segment. During a Northwestern campus visit, he got down on one knee at a special lake spot of theirs.
In 2023, Jones penned a sweet message in honor of her and Ojeh’s anniversary. “I was born in Philly … moved away as a baby … visited my father every summer after my parents separated … but I never imagined I’d end up having some of the best years of my life and career there, getting married in Philly, and ultimately having 3 kids at the same hospital where I was born,” she wrote on Instagram.
How did Sheinelle Jones meet her husband?
Jones and Ojeh had an on-campus meet-cute. The TODAY co-host began studying journalism during the fall 1996 semester, but Ojeh didn’t enroll in the school until the following year. However, they met before that: Ojeh visited the school as a high school senior. That’s when he and an 18-year-old Jones first crossed paths, according to Northwestern Magazine.
“I was a fake tour guide … I was just walking to class,” Jones said. “[I was like, ‘Are you guys lost?’ And] I told him I would take him around because he was cute. I was like, ‘This is the Black House. … This is the Plex (aka Foster-Walker Complex), and if you need real tidbits, I’m probably not the one.’”
Does Sheinelle Jones have kids?
Two years after they tied the knot, Jones and Ojeh welcomed their first son, Kayin. Three years later, their family grew by two more when Jones gave birth to twins, Clara and Uche.
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“One thing he always talked about — he talked about those kids,” TODAY’s Craig Melvin said during the announcement of Ojeh’s death. “He loved those kids more than anything else in this world, and was just so proud. He was that dad that was on the sideline at every soccer game. He was at all the concerts, the recitals. He was that guy.”
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