“Savannah wrapped her arms around me… and what she did in that hospital room is something I’ll never forget.” 🕯️👀 Sheinelle Jones has just shared new, intimate details about the darkest stretch of her life as her husband, Uche Ojeh, battled brain cancer — and how Savannah Guthrie suddenly showed up right as the first surgery was about to happen. Sheinelle says it wasn’t just a hug… it was the moment everything fell apart, and then got held together again through prayer. But what’s quietly stunning is what Sheinelle reveals next: the Today team were doing something behind the scenes — something she calls the “village” that carried her family through those 18 months.

Sheinelle Jones is thankful for the “village” of people who rallied around her and her family during her husband’s brain cancer diagnosis.

In her recent PEOPLE cover interview, Jones, 47, opened up about just how buoyed she was by her Today colleagues.

“I think my kids started to bond even more with some of my colleagues, like Savannah [Guthrie], for example,” Jones says. “I knew that Savannah lost her father around the same age that my kids lost their father, but I look back now and I’m like, ‘That’s why she was so amazing because she knows it and she had a mom who lived it.’ She was able to approach it as a daughter, but also remembering how her mom went through it.”

Jones’s husband, Uche Ojeh, died at age 45 in May 2025 from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He shared three children with Jones: son Kayin, 16, and twins Clara and Uche Jr., 13.

“[Savannah] just really wrapped her arms around me. I remember during his first surgery, Savannah rushed in. I’m like, ‘How did you get here?’ And she prayed with my family and his family, and so they just really connected and they really bonded,” Jones shared.

Faith is very important to Guthrie, Jones and Ojeh, who “loved” Guthrie’s book, Mostly What Goes Does, says Jones.

“We always had [the book] with him, and he would carry it around,” she says.

The bond with Jones, Ojeh and their children was equally as strong for Guthrie, 54, who remembers dropping by the hospital ahead of Ojeh’s first surgery,

“Other times I’ve been to that same hospital and I’ve had to wait and they don’t let you just walk in. But somehow I found myself not only there, but standing outside the room where he was getting ready for surgery. And I was almost like, ‘Should I knock on this curtain? What am I doing?’ I have my [gift] basket, but I’m like, ‘I don’t belong here.’ I thought I was just going to leave it,” she recalls.

Guthrie ultimately decided that she was going to go inside and see her friends.

“I walked in and I saw Sheinelle and I saw Uche and we all burst into tears. I hugged him and he was listening to praise and worship music as he almost always was,” she says. “And so I would hold his hands and we would pray. I could see what was in his heart and how much he loved life and just how much faith and belief he had, it was palpable.”

Jones’ former third hour co-anchors, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer, all rallied around their friend, too.

Roker, 71, delivered breakfast sandwiches to hospice, Melvin, 46, visited Ojeh often and Hoda Kotb even came by the hospital with devotional books. And it was Dreyer, 44, who slipped into Jones’ dressing room one morning in December 2024 to gently encourage her exhausted friend to step away from work and be with her family.

“When my colleagues stepped in, it was ‘Who do we need to call? Can we just come over? Can we help you with your kids?’ And sending meal trains, and just all of the things,” says Jones.

The Today with Jenna & Sheinelle host adds: “And for me, going back to work, with all of those people surrounding me, I feel safe and loved, and I don’t have to pretend. My joy is real.”