Richard Cohen, the husband of former TODAY anchor Meredith Vieira, died on Christmas Eve at the age of 76.
Cohen lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years and survived a pair of cancer diagnoses. He and Vieira were married 38 years and have three kids.
Cohen was a veteran journalist who worked for CBS News. He was also diagnosed with MS at a young age.
“I was diagnosed when I was 25 years old and essentially told there is no hope,” he said while appearing on TODAY with Vieira in 2018.
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“Diagnosed and adios. Nothing much we can do,” he added.
Cohen wrote multiple books about his health and spoke out for people living with chronic illness.
“I think too many people stay closed and don’t tell the truth,” he said on TODAY in 2014.
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Cohen told Vieira about his diagnosis on their second date.
“I told her about the illness, because I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table. And she really didn’t blink,” he told Yahoo Life.
Recalling that moment, Vieira told the outlet: “I’ve always been of the school of thought that you could get hit by a bus the next day, any one of us could. It certainly wasn’t enough to scare me off.”
The couple had sons Ben and Gabe and daughter Lily. When Vieira left TODAY in 2011, she said she wanted to spend more time with Cohen and their kids.
“Time is one of those weird things. You can never get enough of it, and it just keeps ticking away. And I know that I want to spend more of mine with my husband, Richard, and my kids,” she said.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
