Sheinelle Jones broke down in tears as she spoke publicly about the death of her husband for the first time on the Today show.

Her late partner, Uche Ojeh, died in May aged 45 following a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

In her first interview, Sheinelle, 47, talked about Ojeh’s final moments with co-host Savannah Guthrie and described the past few months as a ‘beautiful nightmare’. 

Addressing her loss, Sheinelle said: ‘My heart is shattered. My heart is shattered in a million pieces.

‘The life that I’ve known since I was 19 is no more. I always wanted kids, and I have three kids of my own now and they’ve lost their dad and I’m their mom. It sucks.

‘So how am I doing? You know, it’s day-to-day. I’m proud of myself for, you know, how I’ve coped so far.

‘I’m proud of my kids for how we’ve been able to try to pull through. But it’s… it’s horrible. It’s just horrible. But I’m here.’

Ojeh was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of cancer that starts as a growth of cells in the brain or spinal cord, and grows very quickly, per Mayo Clinic.

There is no cure for the cancer, although it can be managed with treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.

Sheinelle and her late husband got married in 2007, and share three children together, 14-year-old Kayin, and 12-year-old twins Clara and Uche.

They were college sweethearts, as they met when they were both studying at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in the late 1990s.

‘We would have been married 18 years this month,’ she said. ‘And it just felt like we always kind of had it.’

Wiping away tears, she continued: ‘When he was dying, I would say, “This sucks. This is scary. But if you asked me if this was going to be my fate, I would do it all over again.”‘

Sheinelle, who returned to the Today show today, revealed that she was presenting on the program for almost a year while Ojeh was battling the disease privately.

She ultimately decided to step back in December, to focus on her family and her other half because she ‘didn’t know what tomorrow would bring.’

‘I was starting to feel like I didn’t want to miss it. I didn’t want to look back. 

‘I wanted to be strong, and I wanted to look back and know that I was strong. But I didn’t want to be so strong that I missed this blessing right in front of me — that I missed the fight, that I missed the beauty in the fight. 

‘That I missed just looking in his eyes.’ 

Sheinelle also explained why she had kept news of his diagnosis to herself, adding that he was a ‘fiercely private person.’

‘There may be some people who are watching, and they say, “why didn’t she share? Why did she hold this for so long?”‘ she began.

‘And what I will tell you is that Uche was fiercely private. I chose the spotlight, but he did not.

‘When he got this diagnosis, he asked me like, please, I want to handle this privately. And he was so protective of us, the kids, over the years that it was my turn to be protective.

‘And he was so loyal, so it was my turn to be loyal, and we honored that.’

Sheinelle added: ‘That is why now I feel comfortable talking.’

Savannah revealed Sheinelle’s return to the NBC show earlier this week, much to the excitement of their fellow colleagues.

‘She [Jones] and her family have been through so much after the devastating loss of her husband, Uche,’ she said.

‘And we recently sat down together and shared a really personal conversation talking about how she has carried on and found the strength these past few months.

‘She calls this experience ‘a beautiful nightmare’ and she has thoughts on grief that are so touching.

‘She’s got a special message of hope too for anybody sharing their own struggles and we’ll share that with you.’