Sheinelle Jones is revealing how she has remained strong during a challenging year.
The TODAY co-host appeared as a guest on the April 16 episode of the “Open Book with Jenna” podcast. During the chat between the TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle co-hosts, Jenna Bush Hager asked what Sheinelle has learned about herself over the past six months, as a human being, woman and mother. Sheinelle’s husband of 17 years, Uche Ojeh, died in May 2025 at the age of 45 following a battle with brain cancer. Sheinelle and Ojeh had three children together.
Speaking about what she has discovered through painful times, Sheinelle told Jenna, “I’m stronger than I could have ever imagined. I’m almost so strong it scares me sometimes.”
Sheinelle described herself as a “tough cookie” and shared that her mom taught her tenacity at a young age.
She remembered getting in trouble as a child and her mother disciplining her. Sheinelle said she would cry and then her mom would explain what she did wrong.
“Every time I got in trouble, we had to talk about it,” she recalled. “She would say, ‘We have to be tough.’”
Sheinelle said she still emoted and expressed herself through dance during her childhood. But if she ever felt like crying, she would tell herself that she had to wait and process her emotions later. Over the years, she said she has chipped away at her thick-skinned exterior.
“I have to reel that in, because it can come across as insensitive, and I don’t want to be that,” she explained. “I’ve learned to be a lot more vulnerable.”
Sheinelle said that after her husband died she gave herself two days to grieve and honor the past version of herself.
“I grieved Uche, and I’m still grieving Uche, and I was trying to be around the kids. But I took two days off,” she shared. “I was like, these two days are going to celebrate who I was. Because I really liked her, like, she got me here. She dreamed of having this chair. She got herself to Philly. She works so hard. She has her friends. She has her family. I want to celebrate her, because she’s different.”
Sheinelle said she is still getting to know the new version of herself, but she is enjoying what she has seen so far.
“There are parts about her that I admire. I think she’s a badass.”
She continued, “I am, right now, proud of who my kids are seeing. They see me cry and they see me write a book.”
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