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Jenna Bush Hager is preparing to officially welcome a new colleague.
Following nearly a year of rotating guest co-hosts such as Brooke Shields, Olivia Munn, and Scarlett Johansson, the Today With Jenna & Friends host announced that Today's Sheinelle Jones will join her as a permanent co-host in the new year.
"Today, I am so thrilled to announce I have found my forever friend, and we are going to start a brand new journey in January," Jenna said on the Dec. 9 morning show. "I couldn't be happier to introduce you all to this individual. Everyone is familiar with her. She's a wonderful broadcaster, but more importantly, she epitomizes what this show is about."
Sheinelle, for her part, is similarly excited to join the fourth hour of the NBC News broadcast, saying, "I look back on my career, and it was just like one market at a time, you know, things just kept happening." And now to have a show like this is beyond my wildest expectations. This is the real deal, and I get to do it alongside Jenna."
The duo both became emotional as they discussed their long connection, with Jenna adding, "To get to sit next to Sheinelle—I've known her for a decade—but to fall even more in love with her will be a beautiful chapter in this show."
Though speculation persisted for months, oft-recurring cohosts such as Matt Rogers or Regina Hall could be poised to take over the vacant seat left by Hoda Kotb in January. Sheinelle will join the newly-coined Today with Jenna & Sheinelle beginning Jan. 12.
The 47-year-old joined the Today show in October 2014 as a Weekend Today co-anchor and has been hosting the Third Hour since January 2019.
Sheinelle has recently focused on her personal life, taking a nearly nine-month hiatus to help her family as her husband, Uche Ojeh, battles brain cancer. Following his passing in May, she returned to the morning show and referred to her fellow Today co-hosts—Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer, and Jenna—as "family."
"You guys have been my oxygen," she stated when she returned in September. "And you guys at home, all the messages and prayers, I'm so thankful."
But Sheinelle—mother to Kayin, 16, and twins Clara and Uche, 13 with Uche—wasn't the only one relieved she'd returned. Savannah greeted her friend warmly, noting that Studio 1A was better now that she was back.
"I hope you felt how missed you were," the Today coanchor added. "You wanted to be present for every moment—both sad and beautiful—and you were, yet you were sorely missed. It's not the same without you, Sheinelle."
Savannah went on: "You're the heartbeat here, and we're so happy that you're home."
