Congratulations are in order for news anchor Sheinelle Jones, as she gets ready to step into the role of permanent co-host of “Today with Jenna & Friends,” previously known as “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”
During today’s broadcast, Jenna Bush Hager announced Jones’ new appointment. This news comes nearly a year after Hoda Kotb left the morning program. Since her departure, the show has been rotating through various temporary co-hosts.
“Today I’m so thrilled to announce that I’ve found my forever friend and we’re gonna start a brand new journey in January. I couldn’t be more excited to share this person with you all. You all know her, she’s an extraordinary broadcaster. But more importantly, she exemplifies exactly what this show is all about,” Hager shared getting emotional “I’m so excited about this new iteration of this show because it has been, first started by Kathie Lee [Gifford] and Hoda, a show about friendship, a show about the goodness that you can find in the world if you surround yourself with people who see you and who love you. So now to get to sit next to Sheinelle, I’ve known her for a decade, but to get to fall even more in love with her.”
Jones, who got emotional watching a highlight reel of their moments together, explained how the permanent position feels like a full-circle moment as she recalls serving as a fill-in for Gifford and Kotb, the show’s previous co-hosts.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or scream or do what!” Jones explained. “To have show like this, it’s beyond my wildest dreams.”
In addition to this being a dream fulfilled, the news comes at the heels of a very difficult season in Jones’ life. Earlier this year, the journalist lost her husband, Uche Ojeh, to glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. She returned from her year-long leave of absence in September with a powerful sit down in which she opened up about the “beautiful nightmare” that is grief.
“If you see me now and you see me laughing, or you turn on the morning show and I’m laughing or having a good time, you root for me because I’m fighting for my joy,” she told viewers at the time.
Now, she describes this new role as “healing” as well as a part of her “higher purpose.”
“I feel like it’s divine, but I actually feel a responsibility in it where we can bring joy, we can bring hope, we can bring comfort. So just as healing as it is for me and fun, I hope we can bring that for people at home,” she continued. “For those of you who are holding something, whether it’s grief or pain or whatever you’re holding. I just want you to know, if you see me here, that means you can do it too. And we’re all gonna fight for our joy. If you see me laughing and when you see me having a good time with my sister-friend here. That means you can get up and conquer your day, too.”
