Meredith Vieira’s Husband Richard Cohen Dies at 76 After Living with Multiple Sclerosis for Over 50 Years

Richard Cohen, a veteran journalist and the husband Meredith Vieira, died on Christmas Eve at the age of 76 after living more than 50 years with multiple sclerosis and surviving two cancer diagnoses.

News of his death was announced on the Today show on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Hoda Kotb said that he was “surrounded by his family and love” at the time of his death, including Vieira and their three kids: daughter Lily, 32, and sons Gabriel 34, and Benjamin, 36.

All had been together around Thanksgiving, Kotb noted, “concerned they were going to lose him early. Instead, they got a glorious month with their dad.”

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

Cohen and Viera were married for 38 years, tying the knot in 1986. Diagnosed with MS at the age of 25, he famously told Vieira he had the chronic disease when they were on their second date.

“I told her about the illness, because I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table,” he recalled to Yahoo Life in 2019. “And she really didn’t blink.”

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,” said Vieira. “It certainly wasn’t enough to scare me off.”

Instead, Vieira became Cohen’s fiercest supporter. Over their near four decades together, she stood by Cohen’s side as he left his long reporting career for CBS News and became an advocate for those living with MS.

The chronic disease — which affects the central nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves — would eventually lead Vieira to step aside from her own career in broadcast journalism. An original co-host on The View, she left the daytime talk show in 2006 to co-anchor today. She remaind on the program through 2011, when she retired to spend more time with Cohen and their kids.

“Time is one of those weird things,” she said on air at the time. “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.”

This is a developing story, check back for more updates.