SURROUNDED BY FAMILY

Former ‘Today’ Anchor Meredith Vieira’s Husband Dies at 76

The award-winning journalist was also an advocate for the chronically ill.

Richard Cohen, the husband of former Today show anchor Meredith Vieira, has died at age 76 after battling multiple sclerosis for five decades and surviving colon cancer twice. On the Tuesday morning show, Hoda Kotb shared that Cohen died on Christmas Eve surrounded by his family. Cohen was an award-winning journalist who worked at CBS News and CNN, among many other major news outlets. He also authored books on his health struggles and became an advocate for the chronically ill, having been diagnosed with MS when he was just 25-years-old. Cohen revealed his diagnosis to Vieira, his wife of 38 years, on their second date. “It certainly wasn’t enough to scare me off,” the anchor said in a 2019 interview with Yahoo! Life. Vieira left the Today show in 2011 to spend more time with Cohen and their three children. The couple wed in 1986 and welcomed three kids together, sons Ben, 36, and Gabe, 34, and daughter Lily, 32. Current Today co-host Savannah Guthrie remembered Cohen and Vieira as “the most fun, irreverent, entertaining, and cool couple you could hang out with.”