The Truth About Meredith Vieira's Children

For nearly a quarter of a century, Meredith Vieira has been coming into your living room as herself in one form or another. In 1997, she was one of the original co-hosts of "The View." While "The View" is still going strong as of this writing, so is Vieira's career, which has taken twists and turns for years even after her stint on "The View" ended in 2006 so she could jump ship to NBC and co-host its "Today Show" from 2006-2011, while still hosting the syndicated uber-popular game show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (via Britannica)?

Through her own talk show, other news shows for NBC, and yet another game show, there has been one constant in Vieira's life and that has been her husband and children. In 1986, she married the love of her life, Richard Cohen, and the two went on to have three children who are still the light of their parents' lives, even as Vieira and Cohen had to deal with his multiple sclerosis throughout their marriage and his declining health that has left Cohen legally blind, according to Good Housekeeping.

In 2007, Meredith Vieira had to say goodbye to her oldest son, Benjamin, as he left for college at 18 years old and she revealed her feelings in her journal. "Why am I feeling anxious?," she asked herself (via People). "I think it's because, for all my bravado, deep down I'm just really sad. I'm not showing that to Ben, of course — I don't want him to see that. The closest I came to letting it out was the other day when Ben's college held a gathering in the New York area. I was standing there with Richard drinking a glass of wine, watching Ben, already at a distance in a circle of fellow freshman-to-be, with his back turned. And my eyes started to fill with tears, as I stood there, only a few feet from him."

More than a decade later, Vieira and her eldest, Ben, were no longer living near each other when the coronavirus pandemic hit, but she told Closer Weekly that they made sure to keep in touch every day on Zoom.

When Meredith Vieira had to send her eldest son, Ben, off to college, she still had two teens at home and 15-year-old Gabe was one of them at the time. In 2019, Gabe was all grown up and ready to lead a life of his own — as a husband.

During an appearance on "The Today Show With Hoda & Jenna," Vierira announced her son's engagement to reporter Allie Flicker. "A few weeks ago, I was here and I was talking to Hoda and I told her I had a secret," Vieira said (via Closer Weekly). "And I couldn't tell anybody. And we were talking about how hard it is to keep a secret. But now I can tell everybody. My son Gabe ... got engaged."

The next year, Vieira had to sadly tell Closer Weekly that Gabe and Flicker had to postpone their wedding due to COVID-19, but she was pleased that her children were following proper protocols due to the virus. "They didn't want it hanging over their [heads] and they didn't want to put anybody else in danger," she said. "I have to say, my kids have taken this very, very, very seriously."

After two boys, Meredith Vieira finally got her daughter, Lily, who was born in 1993 and works for a website called Tastemade, according to Good Housekeeping.

Lily even made an appearance on her mother's talk show, aptly titled "The Meredith Vieira Show," to demonstrate to the world how her mother was decidedly not an organized homemaker. "We've got a bunch of the same empty [salad dresser bottles]," she said while taking the audience on a tour of the family kitchen. "Because why throw it away when you can keep it in your fridge." She then moved onto her mother's pantry, likening it to one in a "fraternity house."

Vieira later explained to Closer Weekly how she and Lily would speak all the time at the start of the pandemic, but there came a point where they had nothing new to tell each other as each day seemed like the day before.

"​​It has reached the point, I was saying to a friend ... [Lily will] call me or I'll call her and say, 'What's new?' And I'll say, 'Nothing, what's new with you?' And she says, 'Nothing, OK bye!'" Vieira said. "We no longer do all the little small talk, but we talk every single day."