Marlo Thomas Misses St. Jude Segment for First Time in 21 Years For Heartbreaking Reason
Marlo Thomas has served as the national outreach director at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for decades since her father, Danny Thomas, founded the research hospital in 1962. This is the first time in the past 21 years that she has not appeared on TODAY to kick off the annual Thanks & Giving series, which raises money for the hospital around the holidays. She is continuing to stay out of the spotlight and grieve her late husband Phil Donahue, who passed away in August of this year.
While Marlo did not appear on the show, her brother, Tony Thomas, appeared in her place and opened up about how his sister was doing after the loss of her beloved husband. He admitted that she is “doing as best to be expected” and added, “She loved her guy, that was a 44-year marriage that was a true love affair.” The couple met on Donahue’s talk show in 1977 and felt sparks instantly.
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Tony continued, “Everybody that called me said, ‘I can’t believe their marriage was such a love affair and the chemistry.’ It was… they were very, very close and I believe it’s going [to be] awhile before she can handle this.” He confirmed that she would be back next year and would continue her work with St. Jude.
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TODAY hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie sent their love to Marlo and said that she must be very proud of her brother to be there to talk about the work of St. Jude. Tony also spoke of his father’s legacy and how much has changed since he started the foundation about 60 years ago.
He shared, “I think he would be amazed but shocked. It was a long time ago where they opened those doors. There was a period where they were writing checks to pay the payroll for the doctors and scientists.” Donate to St. Jude here.
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1968 Retrospective
January 2018
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