Meredith Vieira’s husband, Richard Cohen, has died at the age of 76, after living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for more than 50 years.
Hoda Kotb announced Cohen’s death on Tuesday (January 7) during an episode of Today, one of the shows Vieria formerly hosted. Kotb revealed that Cohen died on Christmas Eve (December 24), “surrounded by love.”
The TV anchor also noted that before his death, Cohen was with his family, including his and Vieira’s adult children: Benjamin, 36, Gabriel, 34, and Lily, 32.
“Meredith did say that all of the kids came around Thanksgiving,” Kotb explained. “Because they were concerned they were going to lose him early. But instead, they got a glorious month with their dad.”
Savannah Gutherie chimed in to share how the former host of The View was doing. She also gushed about the former Vieira’s relationship with Cohen.
“She’s in really good spirits,” Guthrie added. “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.”
During an episode of The View on Tuesday (January 7), host Joy Behar also announced the death of Vieira’s husband.
“A lot of people who’ve watched the show remember Richard,” Behar said. “Meredith told us that it’s only fitting because he came into this world on Valentine’s Day, so he left it on a holiday. So it felt like perfect symmetry.”
She concluded: “Our hearts go out to our beloved Meredith, as well as Richard’s family and many friends. A life well lived.”
Vieira and Cohen first tied the knot in 1996. When he was only 25, Cohen was diagnosed with MS, a disease “that causes breakdown of the protective covering of nerves,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms can include “numbness, weakness, trouble walking, vision changes.”
During an interview with Yahoo Life! in 2019, he noted that MS was “a family illness,” as his mother and father both had it. He also recalled some of his first symptoms of the disease.
“I dropped a coffeepot for no reason. I fell off a curb for no reason. I noticed a little numbness in my leg,” he said. “It hit my eyesight fairly quickly, but other than that, I was very active physically and I thought I was really beating it. I was living in denial.”
Cohen noted that shortly after he started dating Vieira in 1982, he told her about his MS. “I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table,” he said. “She didn’t blink.”
Vieira has been working in the TV industry for nearly 40 years, with her first big role as moderator on The View from1997 to 2006. She also hosted the game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire from 2002 to 2013, and was a co-host of Today from 2006 to 2011. For two years, she ran her own program, The Meredith Vieira Show.
She’s currently hosting another popular game show, 25 Words or Less, which she’s been on since 2019.
Vieira has not publicly spoken out about her husband’s death. The Independent has contacted a representative for Vieira for comment.
