Marlo Thomas Shares Emotional Update Following the Death of Her Husband, Phil Donahue

More than a year after los­ing her beloved hus­band, leg­endary talk show host Phil Don­ahue, actress and activist Mar­lo Thomas has opened up about how she’s cop­ing with life after his pass­ing.

Thomas, 88, appeared on TODAY this week for her first tele­vi­sion appear­ance since Donahue’s death in August 2024 at the age of 88. Known for her warm pres­ence and tire­less work as the nation­al out­reach direc­tor for St. Jude Children’s Research Hos­pi­tal, Thomas had skipped her usu­al hol­i­day appear­ance on TODAY last year as she mourned her hus­band of 44 years.

When asked how she’s been doing, Thomas offered a heart­felt but hope­ful answer.

“I’m doing well. I’m like Sheinelle,” she said, refer­ring to TODAY host Sheinelle Jones, who recent­ly lost her hus­band, Uche Ojeh, to brain can­cer.

Jones, vis­i­bly emo­tion­al, respond­ed, “She’s been my Earth angel,” acknowl­edg­ing Thomas’s sup­port dur­ing her own grief.

Thomas smiled soft­ly and said, “Thank you. I miss him a lot.”

Phil Don­ahue — the pio­neer­ing tele­vi­sion host who rev­o­lu­tion­ized day­time TV with The Phil Don­ahue Show — passed away peace­ful­ly sur­round­ed by fam­i­ly, includ­ing Thomas, his chil­dren, grand­chil­dren, sis­ter, and their dog, the fam­i­ly said in a state­ment to TODAY.com last year.

In the days fol­low­ing his pass­ing, Thomas wrote a mov­ing trib­ute on Insta­gram, thank­ing fans for their love and shar­ing that she would take a break from social media to heal.

“Until I return, I wish you good health and hap­py days in the com­pa­ny of fam­i­ly and friends, and I hope that you will con­tin­ue to hold close those you cher­ish most, just as I was blessed to do with my beloved Phillip,” she wrote.

Their love sto­ry began in 1972 when Thomas appeared as a guest on Donahue’s talk show. Sparks didn’t imme­di­ate­ly fly, but when she returned five years lat­er to pro­mote her film Thieves, the chem­istry was unde­ni­able. On-air, she told him,

“You are won­der­ful! You are lov­ing and gen­er­ous, and you like women. Who­ev­er is the woman in your life is very lucky.”

The cou­ple mar­ried in 1980 and spent over four decades togeth­er, becom­ing one of Hollywood’s most admired pairs. In 2020, they co-authored What Makes a Mar­riage Last, fea­tur­ing can­did con­ver­sa­tions with oth­er celebri­ty cou­ples about the secrets behind endur­ing love.

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When reflect­ing on her own mar­riage, Thomas once shared her per­son­al phi­los­o­phy for keep­ing love alive:

“Love, lis­ten­ing, and lust,” she told Peo­ple in 2023. “You have to lis­ten and then you’ll know what the oth­er per­son is real­ly think­ing and going through. You have to love each oth­er.”

Now, as she con­tin­ues to car­ry her husband’s lega­cy for­ward, Thomas’s grace, wis­dom, and resilience shine through — a tes­ta­ment to a part­ner­ship that defined not just their lives, but an era of tele­vi­sion his­to­ry.