Secret behind Sheinelle Jones landing Today host job… as insider reveals the truth about her ‘s**t talking’ behind the scenes

It was an emotional day for Sheinelle Jones when it was officially announced last month that she would be the new co-host of the fourth hour of Today.

After all, competition included up to 60 potential contenders – a mix of celebrities and other TV personalities – who have been rotating co-hosting duties alongside Jenna Bush Hager since Hoda Kotb, 61, bowed out in January 2025.

‘To have a show like this is beyond my wildest dreams,’ Jones, 47, said on landing the sought-after position. ‘This is the real deal, and I get to do it with Jenna.’

Bush Hager, 44, who has been hosting the fourth hour since 2019, was just as excited, telling her: ‘I’m so happy you’re here. I knew I was going to cry before you walked out, I tried not to.’

But little do fans know just how big of a dream it was for the broadcaster from Wichita, Kansas, to land a much-coveted role, one she had spent her younger years manifesting through affirmations and motivational quotes.

‘This was a dream, not only to be on national television, I think to be specifically on the Today Show, which I think may be the dream of many people, but she got it done,’ her former co-host Mike Jerrick from Fox29’s Good Day Philadelphia told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

‘I think she had posters of national TV people up in her bedroom in Wichita. So, this is full circle. I mean, that’s why I’m so thrilled for her. I don’t think most people’s ultimate dreams come true.’

Noting that she was a ‘huge fan of Oprah [Winfrey]’, Jerrick, 75, said that Jones ‘used to talk a lot about Oprah’ and how meeting the television icon for the first time – she notably interviewed her in 2022 – saw Jones come close to ‘passing out.

Before a life on screen became reality, Jones’ childhood played out in a 1,500 square foot ranch-style home – a far cry from the $1.4 million property she lives in today in Livingston Manor, New York.

As a youngster she ‘had great role models,’ according to Jerrick who said her story was not a case of rags to riches. Her mother Sheila Kinnard, is a retired schoolteacher, and her father Cardozie ‘C.’ Darnell Jones II, was a former judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who was nominated by President George W. Bush.

Her grandmother, Josephine Brown – who died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 96, was the head of the school board of Wichita, while her grandfather, Dr. Val Brown Sr., who died, aged 98, in 2022 was a physician. 

Jones has talked fondly of her past, telling MSNBC in 2020 how her grandmother helped push her to achieve her dreams.

‘I remember coming home one day in middle school and I was like, “Oh man, English is easy,”‘ she said. ‘And the next day, [my grandmother] walks with me to class and talks to the principal. And next thing you know, I’m in AP English.’ 

Jerrick, who worked with Jones for five years and remains a co-host on the Fox29 morning show, believes she had ‘nothing but support’ throughout her childhood, and even spilled that Jones ‘never had anything negative to say about her upbringing.’

And despite being ‘the product of divorce twice,’ she was grateful for her ‘beautiful blended families.’ 

Jones has five half siblings: Cardozie Jones, Keesha Williams-Elliott, twins Fernando Jones and Antonia Thomas, and Pace Kinnard.

After graduating Wichita Heights High School in 1996, Jones went on to attend Northwestern University where she received her bachelor’s degree in journalism. It is here that she met her late husband, Uche Ojeh – she was a freshman at the time and he was a prospective high school senior who was touring the Evanston, Illinois-based campus.

Jones clearly inherited her grandmother’s drive, a trait that has no doubt helped her journey to the Today show. 

For during her sophomore year, she successfully begged BET Networks for a summer internship. ‘I slept on [my sister’s] couch – she was [studying] at Howard [University]. And I worked at Rainbow at the mall to make money, because [I wasn’t] getting paid,’ she revealed. 

Her first broadcast job out of college was for WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois. She then went on to work at KOKI-TV, the Fox affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she worked as an evening news anchor and reporter.

Following this, she worked at WTXF-TV, the Fox O&O (owned-and-operated station) in Philadelphia, where was at Fox29’s Good Day Philadelphia station for nine years before leaving in March 2014.

Jerrick believes that Jones didn’t want to leave Philadelphia since she loved being close to her father and raising the kids around him.

‘She never talked specifically about trying to leave Good Day Philadelphia,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it was on her mind. She was trying to raise three kids here. I don’t think it was in the forefront of her mind to move on, but when the opportunity came, she jumped at it, and I think reverted back immediately to the dream that she had.’

She joined Today in October 2014 as part of Weekend Today. In January 2019, she became co-host on the third hour of Today. She was out on medical leave for six weeks in 2020 to have surgery to remove lesions from her vocal cord and was unable to speak for two weeks.

More bad news followed. 

In late 2024, she took another leave of absence from the Today show, but this time to be by her husband Uche’s side. On May 23, 2025, the morning show announced her husband of nearly 18 years had died after he was diagnosed with aggressive glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. He was 45.

The couple have three children: son Kayin, 16, and 13-year-old twins Clara and Uche. Jones previously opened up about suffering a miscarriage in her 2021 documentary, The Stories We Tell: The Fertility Secret. 

Taking up her new position on Monday will be a bittersweet moment for Jones whose husband and grandmother won’t be able to witness her achieving her dream.

But despite what will inevitably be an emotional moment, Jerrick insisted: ‘She’s resilient. She has a tough soul.’

Recalling how she coped after Uche’s death, he continued: ‘I think the main thing was she had no choice because she had to be strong for those children. Of course they were devastated, but I remember her saying, “I’ve got to stay strong and not fall apart in front of them because it’s frightening for them. They lost their dad. Now, we can’t lose our mother mentally or certainly not physically.”‘

When they were growing up, Jerrick remembered how she balanced it all: ‘Having twins, I know that was a struggle for her. I mean, physically, but she still would get up and do the show. She never was grumpy. It’s really remarkable.’

Jones’ final day on the third hour of the Today show was on January 2.

Calling her a ‘superstar,’ Jerrick believes that the audience will fall in love with her and that she ‘will excel at this job’, because, naturally, she was the ‘best choice’.

‘She’s just the most genuine person,’ he said. ‘She’s a unique on-air talent. There’s nothing fake there… She’s just incredibly kind and funny.’

And don’t expect there to be any drama behind the scenes as Jerrick recalls he ‘never heard her talk s**t about anybody else’ no matter how ‘frustrated’ they got on set.

In fact, quite the opposite. Jones would try to prevent any negativity in the workplace. 

Jerrick recalled: ‘She would call me out if I used the Lord’s name in vain if I got upset about something and started cussing. She said, “Don’t do that.” And she always reminded me, “Speak it into existence. The words that come out of your mouth are important”. So, I think she taught me not to be so negative.’

He foresees her new position on the Today show being a seamless transition, especially since he’s aware that Bush Hager and Jones have ‘become very good friends.’ 

‘I think the show will be highly successful,’ he said. ‘Once you get to know her, you can’t stop watching her because she becomes your friend on the air. That’s just who she is.’