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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Marlo Thomas paid tribute to her husband, television host Phil Donahue, on August 19, 2024, one day after his death at age 88. “I lost my sweetheart last night,” she wrote, thanking people for their messages and saying she was stepping away from her page to care for herself and those who had cared for him.
What Marlo Thomas said after Phil Donahue died
Thomas shared the tribute on Instagram the day after Donahue died at home on August 18, 2024. In the post, as quoted by TV Insider, she called him her “sweetheart.” She thanked people for their messages and for allowing the couple to share their life adventure with them, and said she would step away from her page for a while to care for herself and the people who had cared for Donahue.
The family’s announcement, reported by ABC News, said he died at home at 88. ABC reported that the cause of death had not been disclosed; no cause was given in the family information cited in the coverage.
How Thomas and Donahue met and married
Thomas appeared as a guest on Donahue’s talk show in 1977. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital says they met on the set; TV Insider reports that she was there to promote the film Thieves.
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They married on May 21, 1980, in a private ceremony at Thomas’s parents’ home, according to St. Jude. Their marriage lasted 44 years.
The television career behind the public remembrance
Donahue’s talk show made audience participation central to daytime television: viewers in the studio asked questions and joined conversations about current and personal issues. The format and the show’s long run helped make him a defining figure in the genre, a point reflected in tributes after his death.
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The reported length of the show’s run depends on how it is counted. St. Jude describes Donahue’s daytime talk show run as 29 years, while ABC News says the syndicated show ended in September 1996 after a 26-year syndicated run. The sources do not specify identical starting points or definitions, so those figures should be understood in their respective contexts rather than treated as a direct contradiction.
Donahue received 20 Emmy Awards, according to St. Jude and President Joe Biden’s statement. Biden, who was president at the time, described Donahue as a pioneer of live daytime talk television and wrote, “He will be sorely missed,” in a statement issued August 20, 2024, reproduced by the American Presidency Project. ABC also reported that Donahue received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2024.
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Where the family directed memorial donations
The family named St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund for memorial donations, according to the family information reported by ABC News and St. Jude.
Donahue supported St. Jude. At a 2012 event, he described seeing families at the hospital as “a spiritual experience,” in remarks quoted by the organization.
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