BREAKING NEWSMeredith Vieira's Husband Richard Cohen Dead at 76 After Mutliple Sclerosis Battle
Meredith Vieira's husband, Richard Cohen, has died at 76 years old.
Jan. 7 2025, Published 8:47 a.m. ET
Meredith Vieira's husband, Richard Cohen, a veteran journalist, died on Christmas Eve at 76 years old after battling multiple sclerosis and surviving two cancer diagnoses.
On Tuesday, January 7, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie announced the sad news, with the former saying Cohen was "surrounded by his family and love" at the time of his death.
The TV host, Cohen and their three kids, daughter Lily, 32, and sons Gabriel 34, and Benjamin, 36, were all together on Thanksgiving, but they were "concerned they were going to lose him early," Kotb noted. "Instead, they got a glorious month with their dad."
The star's husband, Richard Cohen, has died at 76 years old.
"She's in really good spirits," Guthrie added of Vieira. "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."
Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie shared the news about Richard Cohen on January 7.
The pair got married in 1986, but Cohen, who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 25, didn't hold back about his disease, as he got candid on their second date about his health woes.
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“I told her about the illness, because I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table," he 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," said Vieira. "It certainly wasn’t enough to scare me off.”
The TV host said her husband's MS diagnosis didn't 'scare' her off.
Vieira became one of his biggest supporters, and when she left Today in 2011, she said she wanted to be with her loved ones.
“Time is one of those weird things. 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,” she said.
The star and Richard Cohen got married in 1986.
In 2019, The View alum said her husband was "doing OK."
“But it’s a progressive illness, so you don’t know from day to day. He needs a walker, and since he’s been using it, he’s much stronger. It was something he dreaded, but it’s been a blessing," she told People.
“We definitely allow each other to vent,” she said of dealing with his health issues. “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.”
