Meredith Vieira’s Husband Richard Cohen Dies at 76

Veteran journalist Richard Cohen, who was married to Meredith Vieira, has died at 76.

His passing was announced on the “Today” show, with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb revealing he died on Christmas Eve.

Cohen had lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years and battled cancer twice.

Hoda shared that when he died Richard was “surrounded by his family and love,” which included his wife of 38 years, Meredith, and their three children, Benjamin, 36, Gabriel, 34 and Lily, 32.

Kotb explained that the family was together at Thanksgiving and were concerned they were going to lose him then. She added, “Instead, they got a glorious month with their dad.”

Savannah said of Vieira, “She’s in really good spirits. 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.”

In 2019, Richard and Meredith opened up to Yahoo! Lifestyle about his diagnosis. 

Cohen explained MS ran in his family, sharing that both his father and his father’s mother had it.

Richard said he was living in denial when he was diagnosed at 25. “I dropped a coffeepot for no reason. I fell off a curb for no reason,” he shared. “I noticed a little numbness in my leg. 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.”

Ten years later, he met Meredith and recalled they “went toe to toe” from the beginning. 

Vieira said of the meeting, “I thought two things: ‘What a jerk,’ and then my second thought was, ‘I’m going to marry this guy.”

He told her he had MS on their second date, explaining, “I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table. She didn’t blink.”

Cohen initially kept his illness private, but added, “A secret sickness is not a happy way to live.” 

He eventually started writing about MS and sharing his journey through books.

Richard’s advice to others was that you will live with MS, but “you don’t have to be controlled by it.”