Richard M. Cohen, a journalist and longtime husband of Meredith Vieira, has died after living with multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years and surviving two bouts of colon cancer. He was 76.
Cohen, a broadcast journalist like his wife, died on Christmas Eve. The news was announced Tuesday on “Today,” the NBC morning show that Vieira co-anchored from 2006 until 2011, when she stepped down to spend more time with her husband and three children.
“Today” co-host Hoda Kotb said Tuesday that Cohen died “surrounded by his family and love.” Those family members, she told viewers, had just experienced “a glorious month … with their dad” after coming home for Thanksgiving because they feared they would “lose him early.”
In a 2018 appearance on “Today,” Cohen said that when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 25, he was “essentially told there is no hope. Diagnose and adios, not much we can do.”
The first disease-modifying drug to help with MS wasn’t approved by the FDA until 1993, about 20 years after his diagnosis, but now there are about 20 such drugs on the market. While such drugs are not a cure for MS, they can delay progression of the disease, reduce the number of relapses and prevent some new damage to the nervous system, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Cohen’s cause of death was not discussed on “Today,” but the Hudson Independent reported it to be pneumonia.
Born on Valentine’s Day in 1948, Cohen married Vieira in June 1986. He was an author as well as a senior producer for CNN and CBS News and wrote a number of books focusing on living with chronic illness. “Blindsided,” published in 2003, a few years after Cohen’s bouts with cancer, “explores the effects of illness on raising three children and his relationship with wife Meredith Vieira” and “tackles the nature of denial and resilience and the redemptive effects of a loving family,” according to publisher HarperCollins.
Vieira, who has worked in news at all three major U.S. broadcast networks, was an original panelist on “The View,” spent time at “60 Minutes” and hosted the syndicated daytime version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” She has occasionally guest-hosted during the fourth hour of “Today” with Laura Bush and the outgoing Kotb since 2019.
In addition to his wife, Cohen is survived by children Benjamin, Gabriel and Lily Cohen. They are all in their 30s. Gabe Cohen is a reporter for CNN.
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