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Respected journalist Richard Cohen died<\/a> at the age 76 on Christmas Eve surrounded by his family and wife, Meredith Vieira<\/strong>. He battled pneumonia for two months before his death and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis over 50 years ago.<\/p>\n Today<\/em><\/a> show cohosts Hoda Kotb<\/strong> and Savannah Guthrie<\/strong> announced the news during the Tuesday, January 7, episode of the show. Hoda, 60, explained that Richard and Meredith\u2019s kids Benjamin<\/strong>, 36, Gabriel<\/strong>, 34, and Lily<\/strong>, 32, gathered together for Thanksgiving, \u201cconcerned\u201d that it would be their last holiday as a family.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, they got a glorious month with their dad,\u201d Hoda, who is retiring after her final Today<\/em> episode on Friday, January 10, said.<\/p>\n Savannah, 53, updated fans on Meredith\u2019s well-being, sharing good news that the former Today<\/em> show host is in \u201creally good spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was such a beautiful and devoted wife to Richard and he adored Meredith,\u201d Samantha said. \u201cAnd hanging out with them, they were like the most fun and entertaining, irreverent, cool couple you could hang out with.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard and Meredith, 71, lived a life full of love after they met in 1983 and tied the knot four years later. The couple faced challenges head-on early in their relationship when the former Washington Post<\/em> columnist told Meredith he had MS, a long-lasting chronic disease of the central nervous system, on their second date.<\/p>\n \u201cI told her about the illness, because I sort of learned the hard way to get it on the table,\u201d Richard told Yahoo! Life<\/em><\/a> in 2019, revealing that Meredith \u201creally didn\u2019t blink\u201d while receiving the news.<\/p>\n Later in the interview, Meredith admitted that Richard\u2019s health condition \u201ccertainly wasn\u2019t enough to scare me off.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard told the outlet about the moment he realized he had MS, a diease which ran in his family.<\/p>\n \u201cI dropped a coffeepot for no reason. I fell off a curb for no reason. I noticed a little numbness in my leg,\u201d Richard reflected. \u201cIt hit my eyesight fairly quickly, but other than that, I was very active physically and I thought I was really beating it. I was living in denial.\u201d<\/p>\n