Veteran journalist Richard Cohen, who has been married to Meredith Vieira since 1986, died on Christmas Eve on the age of 76.
Cohen lived greater than 50 years with a number of sclerosis and survived two most cancers diagnoses.
Hoda Kotb introduced his demise on “Today” Tuesday. The host mentioned Cohen was “surrounded by his family and love” on the time of his passing, together with Vieira, 71, and their three children: daughter Lily, 32, and sons Gabriel 34, and Benjamin, 36.
The household had been collectively since Thanksgiving, as Kotb famous they had been “concerned they were going to lose him early. Instead, they got a glorious month with their dad.”
“She’s in really good spirits,” Savannah Guthrie added of her fellow “Today” anchor. “She was such a beautiful and devoted wife to Richard and he adored Meredith. And hanging out with them, they were like the most fun and entertaining, irreverent, cool couple you could hang out with.”
The couple was married for 38 years, with Cohen being recognized on the age of 25 with MS, He instructed Vieira that he had the continual illness on their second date.
“I told her about the illness, because I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table,” Cohen recalled to Yahoo Life in 2019. “And she really didn’t blink.”
“I’ve always been of the school of thought that you could get hit by a bus the next day, any one of us could,” Vieira chimed in. “It certainly wasn’t enough to scare me off.”
The tv persona stood by her husband’s facet over virtually 4 many years collectively, and was there when he determined to step again from his intensive reporting profession for CBS Information and have become an advocate for individuals with MS.
Talking about how the pair offers with the continual illness – which impacts the central nervous system, together with the mind, spinal wire and optic nerves – Vieira instructed Folks in 2018: “We undoubtedly permit one another to vent.
“That’s part of the deal. Certainly he’s allowed to vent, because he’s got chronic illness. But I am too. Because there are days I can’t stand it and the limitations it puts on the entire family. It’s good to say it. But we don’t dwell.”
She added: “You can think, ‘Why us?’ but then it’s like, ‘Why not us?’ So many people are dealing with stuff and it puts it into perspective.”
Vieira additionally had an extended profession in broadcast, first as an unique co-host on “The View.” However in 2006, she stepped away from the daytime discuss present co-anchor “Today.”
Then, in 2011, Vieira retired to spend extra time with Cohen, who grew to become legally blind on the finish of his life, and their kids.
“Time is one of those weird things,” she revealed on air. “You can never get enough of it, and it just keeps ticking away. And I know that I want to spend more of mine with my husband, Richard, and my kids.”
Along with dwelling with MS, Cohen survived colon most cancers twice and a blood clot in his lung.
Cohen opened up concerning the impression MS had on his family members in his 2018 memoir “Chasing Hope: A Patient’s Deep Dive into Stem Cells, Faith, and the Future.”
“Chronic illness is a family affair. Spouses have the burden of tending to the needs of a loved one, even when they would secretly rather push him out a window,” he penned. “I knew they should not be treated as spectators when they are in the ring with us.”
