Longtime TV talk show host Phil Donahue died on Sunday night following a long illness, his family said. He was 88.
Donahue died at his home surrounded by his family, including his wife of 44 years, actor Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, his grandchildren and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie, his family said in a statement to TODAY.
No further details about his cause of death were released.
The 3rd hour of TODAY’s Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones announced the news of Donahue’s death on Monday morning.
“You know, we overuse sometimes the word trailblazer, but he certainly was, indeed,” Sheinelle said.
The journalist pioneered the modern format of issue-based daytime talk shows featuring audience participation. His show would become one of the most influential programs of its time, with Donahue winning nine Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding host.
Donahue was born in 1935 in Cleveland and began his journalism career working in radio in the 1950s.
Donahue married his first wife, Margaret Mary Cooney, in 1958, and they had five children. The pair divorced in 1975.
He began hosting TV’s “The Phil Donahue Show” in 1967 in Ohio with a live studio audience. The show was syndicated a few years later and would move to Chicago before making its home in New York City in 1985.
The final episode of the show, which had been renamed “Donahue,” aired in 1996, after a 29-year run.
Donahue met Thomas while filming an episode of the show in 1977, and the pair later said in interviews it was “love at first sight.” The couple married in 1980.
In addition to hosting his eponymous show, Donahue regularly appeared on TODAY from 1979 to 1988. Thomas, an Emmy-winning actor and national outreach director for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has also made appearances on TODAY.
In 2022, she gave an update on her husband on the 3rd hour of TODAY to Craig, Sheinelle, Al Roker and Dylan Dreyer.
“He loves to watch talk shows and scream at the set: ‘That’s not the question!'” Thomas said, sending the hosts into laughter.
Donahue returned to TV briefly in 2002, when he began hosting a show called “Donahue” on MSNBC, which was canceled several months later.
President Joe Biden awarded Donahue and 18 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May. The medal is the country’s highest civilian honor and is presented to “individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” according to the White House.
Donahue’s family requested that donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers, according to their statement.
