NEW ERA BEGINS…Sheinelle Jones Officially Steps In as Jenna Bush Hager’s Fourth-Hour TODAY Co-Host After Hoda Kotb’s Exit, Sending Shockwaves Through Studio Fans and Kicking Off a Major Show Shake-Up

Sheinelle Jones has a new gig at Today!

Nearly a year after Hoda Kotb left the morning news program, it was announced on Tuesday, Dec. 9, that Jones will become Kotb’s replacement to join Jenna Bush Hager as the permanent co-host of the 10 o’clock hour.

Since Kotb’s departure on Jan. 10, the fourth hour was renamed Jenna & Friends, as Bush Hager welcomed different A-list stars and colleagues to the anchor desk.

Jones currently co-hosts the 3rd Hour of Today with Dylan Dreyer, Al Roker and Craig Melvin. She’s been part of the Today family since 2014, starting on the Weekend Today team, before becoming co-host of the 3rd Hour in 2019.

Late last year, Jones began a leave of absence to care for her husband, Uche Ojeh, who died in May at age 45 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

She returned to the news program four months after his death on Sept. 5 in a pre-taped conversation with Savannah Guthrie. During the interview, Jones explained why she was comfortable returning to work, and asked fans to remember: “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.”

“Cancer doesn’t have to steal our joy,” Jones continued. “We can get up, we can get out of bed, and we can go to work, we can go to school, we can squeeze the most out of the days that we have. And honestly, I feel like Uche’s heartbeat lives on in mine. So I owe it to him to just squeeze the most I can out of this thing.”

Jones has been candid since returning about her journey with grief. “We get through the first week of school. First week I’m back at work,” she said of her and the three kids she shared with Ojeh — Kayin, 16, and twins Clara and Uche, 13. “Friday, when we got home, it was tough. There was nothing to rally ourselves for,” she explained. “It was just like, ‘Oh, this is it. This is life. Kind of sucks.'”

While filling in as a guest on Jenna + Friends on Sept. 22, Jones said the loss hit her hard on Saturday morning, after her first week back at work. It was a time she and Ojeh used to reflect on the previous week together.

“My coach was gone. My life partner,” the Today co-host said. “So the days after my first week were tough because it’s, like, my new normal.”

Bush Hager got emotional during the Sept. 22 episode, praising Jones for how she has coped with Ojeh’s death. “I’ve never met anybody stronger,” Bush Hager told her.

When Jones returned on Sept. 5, she explained all the ways her colleagues were there for her during Ojeh’s illness, including Bush Hager, who she said, sent “sweet treats for the kids.” Adding, “You guys have been my oxygen.”

Bush Hager has been co-host of the 10 o’clock hour since 2019 (then titled Hoda & Jenna), when she filled the role long held by Kathie Lee Gifford, who joined Kotb at the desk in 2008.

Earlier this year, Bush Hager told PEOPLE, “every joke that I say is funny because of Hoda.”

She called leading the show without Kotb a “privilege and responsibility,” adding, “I’ve learned from the best. And what big shoes to fill because her optimism is just beautiful.”

Read the original article on People