What To Know
- Sheinelle Jones opened up about navigating her second back-to-school season since her husband Uche Ojeh’s death last year.
- Jones’ eldest son, Kayin, will be entering his junior year of high school, while her twins, Clara and Uche, will begin ninth grade.
- Jones talked about realizing she couldn’t “recreate” how things used to be for her family before Ojeh’s death.
One year after her husband Uche Ojeh‘s death, Sheinelle Jones is gearing up for her kids’ major school year.
During the Tuesday, August 11, episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Jones and Jenna Bush Hager opened up about the “new” stuff they will go through this back-to-school season. While Bush Hager has kids entering eighth and first grade, Jones’ twins, Clara and Uche, will be starting their freshman year of high school this fall.
Jones shares her three kids, including son Kayin, with Ojeh, who died at the age of 45 in May 2025 after a private battle with brain cancer. On the show, Jones revealed how she’s feeling heading into her second school year since his death.
“They say that the biggest stressors in life [are] losing a spouse, moving, a new job. … If you take all the things that are really, really stressful, life-changing stressful, I’ve done it or I’m in it within, like, a year period,” Jones shared, referring to Ojeh’s death, her recent move in New York City, and beginning her role as Bush Hager’s fourth hour of Today co-host earlier this year.
“For me to sit here now and say, ‘OK, Jenna. How do I feel?’ I think I am — my cousin, she was like, ‘My dad used to say you have to look at it like a slice of pie. Do you eat a whole pie at the same time? Does anybody eat a whole pie at the same time? Just one slice at a time,’” she said. “And so, I try to, every day, one slice at a time.”
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Jones went on to note that she spent this summer “trying to recreate what we had so that it could feel like it used to.” However, she quickly realized that her family can’t go back to the way things used to be. “I can’t recreate what I had, but I can create new things,” she explained. “And so, that is where I am.”
Bush Hager pointed out to Jones that figuring out how she will “start some other things” will be “fun.” Jones agreed, but said she “[doesn’t] know what that is yet.”
Jones further opened up about how this back-to-school season will be different in a joint interview with Bush Hager for Parents. “I took pride in making them [the signs] or finding a craft project,” she told the outlet. “Now all three of my kids are going to high school, and so I don’t think they’ll be holding up anything. I think I’ve lost that tradition. Maybe we’ll have to find new ones.”
Jones said she feels some “comfort” as her twins begin high school, as they have a “built-in friend” in each other. “But it is a new school where you may not know a lot of people. So I find myself, just as they probably are, quietly a bit anxious,” she stated.
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Both Jones and Bush Hager also praised the Today staff for helping them build a flexible work/life balance. “If it’s the first day of school, sometimes we do the earlier hours, and then school starts at 8,” Jones said. “We’ll zip home or take the morning off for the first day. And you know what? The colleagues understand because we all do it.”
Bush Hager added, “I feel like Sheinelle and I are really kind of building something new together in the show, but also being even more intentional about taking special moments because since we’re not there all the time, when we do show up, it really means something.”
Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Weekdays, 10 am, NBC