Meredith Vieira and hubby Richard Cohen have been happily married since 1986.
And while Vieira has dominated the small screen for decades,
the details about her personal life don't always make the air. This dedicated couple has certainly
seen it all — working through the darkest times with a sense of humor and a whole lot of heart.
Looking back on Meredith Vieira's career, you can't help but notice
that the beloved TV journalist has always been interested in broadcast news. And if
you've ever seen Vieira in action, you know that she was born for TV.
Interestingly enough, she and her hubby shared a common career path even before they met.
Richard Cohen was a promising young broadcast journalist before their love story began.
According to Good Housekeeping, Vieira and Cohen were both working similar jobs with the same
company when they met for the first time; Vieira had been working for CBS News in their Midwest
bureau, while Cohen was also working for the network in New York City, reporting on politics.
The pair finally crossed paths when Cohen covered the governor's race in Chicago,
where he ran into Vieira on her home turf. As Vieira recalled on The Dr. Oz Show,
"[My] next thought was 'I'm going to marry this guy.' I don't know what it was."
Vieira knew she had found her perfect match. And it appears Cohen felt the same.
"He thought, 'I'm gonna marry that woman.'" If you were to Google "Meredith Vieira's husband,"
you'd find hundreds of results pertaining to multiple sclerosis, a condition that attacks
the nervous system. Cohen was diagnosed with the disease when he was just 25 years old,
but when Vieira first met him, she had no idea he was already suffering from the symptoms.
In fact, Cohen didn't tell her until they were on their second date, since he was very interested
in Vieira, and also worried she might walk away. He even joked, quote, "Why waste money
on dessert?" if Vieira responded poorly to the news. But of course,
Vieira took it in stride — with her signature grace and empathy. She quipped to Dr. Oz,
"My attitude has always been, 'You don't know what's gonna happen to any one of us.'
Y'know, you can walk outside, as they say, and get hit by a bus."
Still, while Vieira had now learned of Cohen's illness, his colleagues knew nothing about his
diagnosis — or the fact that the disease had already begun to claim his vision. Vieira shared,
"I would get people all the time asking, 'Why would you go out [with Richard]? He's such a
snob. I'll walk by him, and he never acknowledges me.' I wanted to say, 'My God, he can't see you.'"
Four years after they first met, Vieira and Cohen got married in '86. And they started
to think about the next logical step in their relationship: children. Because of Cohen's MS,
they really had to consider whether or not it was possible for their children to potentially inherit
the disease. The couple even met with a doctor to undergo genetic testing in order to determine
whether there was a chance their children could be at risk. Vieira revealed to ABC News in 2006,
"You know as they get bigger, if one of my kids stumbles,
I think about it. And if something were to happen to one of the kids,
I don't know how I would feel having you know, given birth to them, how can you not?"
Even though Vieira and Cohen had no guarantees about what the future would
hold in terms of the health of their family, they knew they were all in, no matter what.
While the couple were happily married, they were also experiencing some deeply difficult times.
Cohen's MS had already begun to deteriorate his vision, along with other diminishing
effects on his body. While those challenges might impact even the most blissful of love stories,
Cohen and Vieira didn't get swept away in the grief. As it turns out,
the couple learned to smile through the pain. In an interview with People, Vieira explained
that she and her husband had discovered how to laugh at adversity together. She said,
"Richard is a very funny person, and I have a good sense of humor. So that's sort of our thing."
"She's an easy person. Unless you happen to be married to her."
In an interview with ABC News, Vieira expanded on their dynamic, adding,
"We always found something to laugh about. We just
made jokes. And we still do. It's what gets you through."
Vieira and Cohen have gone through a lot together, including various challenges outside
of Cohen's health. When the couple were first trying to get pregnant, Vieira struggled with
infertility. The couple would go on to ultimately raise three healthy children,
but it wasn't an easy journey to get there. During a 2019 appearance on Today,
Vieira revealed some of the details of her own struggle with infertility, sharing,
"I never had trouble getting pregnant but I always had trouble holding onto pregnancies."
All told, Vieira suffered five miscarriages, something that took her years to ever want
to talk about. But, she decided to share her story — and to poke a little fun at
herself — in order to bring awareness and a breath of fresh air to the issue. She said,
"For those of you going through stuff, know that I have gone through it too."
Vieira took a break from work in 2011, but as she has explained, it wasn't so that she could be a
caregiver to her husband. On the contrary, perhaps part of what keeps the couple's marriage so strong
is that Vieira has never considered her husband to be a burden to their family. Vieira told AARP,
"There's [been] so much speculation in the press recently [about] 'poor Meredith with
her invalid husband,' and I want to set the record straight. My husband, Richard,
is in good health, and that's part of the reason I want to leave right now.
I want to be there with him, and I want to have fun."
The host explained that she truly doesn't consider herself to be her husband's nurse,
in any capacity. Not even anything close. She joked,
"Having somebody there would drive him crazy, I think. He hates hovering."
Despite the infertility struggles that Vieira and Cohen faced together,
they were able to welcome three children into their family. And as such, they truly learned
to cherish and love their children. Even after their brood grew up and moved out,
the couple remained as close as ever to their adult kids.
In an interview with Closer Weekly, Vieira shared that spending more time at home during
the 2020 lockdown helped her appreciate domestic life even more. She explained,
"I love and I value this space that we've created. It's not just a house,
it is our home and it brings me a lot of peace."
"She will call me a hundred times
and assume that I've died if I haven't answered after the first ring."
Vieira also described how she and Cohen focused on
maintaining a special relationship with their children, while in quarantine.
Laughing about possibly talking a little too much with her kids, she added,
"We do Zoom and we talk every day. [My daughter will] call me or I'll call her and say,
'What's new?' And I'll say, 'Nothing, what's new with you?' And she says, 'Nothing, OK bye!'"
When you've been married for as long as Vieira and Cohen have, it might seem like it could
be easy to forget just how good you have it. After all, just about anyone could get so busy
and preoccupied that you might not realize how fortunate you are to be surrounded by loved ones,
especially your partner. But for Cohen, that isn't the case at all.
In an interview about how he manages his multiple sclerosis,
Cohen explained that when he had days of feeling low, he would simply remind
himself how grateful he was for his family, especially his wife. He told Yahoo! Lifestyle,
"You don't have to be controlled by [MS]. I look at our three kids,
I look at our relationship, I've written four books […] what do I have to complain about?"
Cohen admitted that there is, of course, a long list of things that he can no longer do,
but that he's learned to accept that, and focus on the positive.
In a devastating twist, along with Cohen's lifelong battle with multiple sclerosis,
he has also faced two bouts of colon cancer — one in 1999, and then again in 2000.
And he underwent surgery for both. In an interview with AARP, Cohen explained that
he got through the battle with cancer in the same way he was managing his MS. He shared,
"There are so many different diseases, and they do different things to your body. But
the coping issues that go with these illnesses are remarkably similar."
Cohen's battle with cancer surely put even more strain on his marriage with Vieira, especially
when he would be in denial about his health. And for that, Vieira was forced to pay the price. At
one point, his deteriorating strength had caused Cohen to lose his balance, and accidentally knock
his son onto some train tracks. It was an accident that could have ended a lot worse than it did.
Still, Vieira has always been compassionate toward her husband's circumstances, no matter what.
Having faced life and death health battles early in their marriage,
Vieira and Cohen knew they would have to work hard at making their relationship a priority. In fact,
during an interview in 2004, Vieira explained that she once had to drum up a little pep talk
for Cohen about his attitude while recovering from surgery. She admitted to Charlie Rose,
"He began to isolate himself."
While Vieira understood that her husband was struggling mentally,
she refused to let him drift further and further away from her. She said,
"After cutting him a lot of slack, I thought, 'Now you are going after
everything that I care about, and I'm going to fight back.' You're not in this alone."
"Obviously, Richard carries the burden every day, but ultimately illness is a family affair."
Describing her own perspective that she and Cohen were in the same boat,
she sure wasn't going to let him rock it.
And Vieira ultimately confronted Cohen for the sake of her family and their marriage. She said,
"I think it was the right thing to do in order to help heal us as a family."
If there were ever any doubt that Vieira and Cohen have a deep, authentic connection, just
looking at what Vieira admires about her husband should immediately clear the air. As part of an
interview with ABC News, Vieira explained that it wasn't just Cohen's good looks, or money, or
career that she loved and admired the most about him — though she surely does appreciate all of
those qualities. Instead, it's the love he shows their children that she truly adores. She said,
"Well, I think that he's the greatest teacher they'll ever have. If they don't already know it,
they will. He's teaching them compassion and strength and dignity [and] bravery."
"I live with an incredible man who's very, very strong and has
shown me what real character is, and shown my kids as well."
While many might agree that becoming parents is one of the greatest things that a couple
can do together, as for Vieira and Cohen, it has allowed them to recognize new and
endearing qualities in each other. Though Vieira also joked that Cohen can be a,
quote, "pain in the neck" sometimes, there's no denying their deep devotion toward each other.
Make no bones about it, a Hollywood marriage is a notorious risk in itself. Just think about
how many celebrity pairs start with a bang and almost immediately go down in flames.
So just the mere fact that Vieira and Cohen have stayed together as long as they have — 35 years,
if you're counting — is pretty impressive. But more than that, these two are actually
still crazy about each other. And as one of their close friends described,
they've still got that spark of romance after all these years.
"Y'know, you just gotta keep going, you know?"
"Sometimes you just fake it. Y'know, 'Oh, everything's OK.'"
One of Vieira's oldest friends, author Priscilla Warner, explained that she's
amazed that Vieira and Cohen are still so into each other. She told AARP,
"How many people our age would say, 'I'm going to leave and spend a lot
of time with my spouse'? You don't give up a very glamorous, stimulating, exciting job
to spend time with a spouse unless you have a glamorous, stimulating, exciting spouse."
With those closest to them claiming that's exactly how Cohen and Vieira see each other,
we're adding this inspiring pair to the "couple goals" hall of fame.
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