The ‘Today’ show announced Ojeh had died at age 45 after months of treatment for aggressive glioblastoma, a brain cancer

Carson Daly and Sheinelle Jones with her kids Kayin, Clara and Uche.Credit :

TODAY/YouTube; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Carson Daly has a message of hope for the three children of his Today co-host Sheinelle Jones and her late husband Uche Ojeh.

On Friday, May 23, the news was announced on Today that Ojeh had died at age 45 after several months of treatment for aggressive glioblastoma, a brain cancer. Ojeh and Jones, 47, shared son Kayin, 15, and 12-year-old twins Clara and Uche Jr.

The somber news was revealed in a package on the Today show and the co-anchors reflected on Jones and Ojeh’s “strength” and love for their kids amid the painful experience.

“One thing he always talked about, he talked about those kids,” Craig Melvin said of Ojeh. “He loved those kids more than anything else in this world and was just so proud. He was that dad that was on the sidelines of all the soccer games. He was at all the concerts and the recitals. He was that guy.”

Sheinelle Jones and Uche Ojeh with kids Kayin, Clara and Uche.sheinelle_o/Instagram

Daly, a father of four himself, reflected on the death of his own father when he was a kid.

“I can’t help but think of my own life in this situation,” he shared. “You think so much about these young children, your heart goes out to them. My father was 46. I was 5 when my dad died. My dad was young, unexpected cancer diagnosis, passed, and I think back now 45 years later, my faith in God. I mean God has blessed me in my life, so here I am, the young kid, and I say eventually, God gave me two incredible fathers, incredible figures in my life and my life has been so fulfilling and I’m so blessed for that. So I pray for their family and the kids that they’ll have that fortune as well.”

Daly’s biological father Jim “J.D.” Daly died when he was 5, and he also had a strong relationship with his stepfather Richard Caruso, whom he called “Pops.”

“I’ve been praying for years to my father since he died, I say, ‘I know you’re watching over me. I’m okay. It’s okay. You’re home where you’re supposed to be with your heavenly father. And I’m thriving here and it’s okay,’ trying to take that burden off my father,” Daly shared.

Savannah Guthrie, whose father Charles Guthrie died of a heart attack when she was 16, added, “You can survive the loss of your father as young people, as we did.”

“And thrive,” Melvin added.

Uche Ojeh and Sheinelle Jones with kids Uche, Kayin and Clara.Sheinelle Jones/Instagram

Melvin also praised Jones for taking on the additional responsibility of being a caretaker for her late husband over the past few months as well as the primary caregiver for their children.

“What has been remarkable, also is watching the way with which she has dealt with this — dealing with a husband who’s battling cancer and three young children that she has had to rear by herself for a while now, essentially, it’s just, it really is remarkable,” Melvin said. “And to your point, JBH [Jenna Bush Hager], every time you’d talk to her, she still found a way to laugh about something.”