'Today' co-host Sheinelle Jones to have vocal cord surgery, will be unable to speak for two weeks

Sheinelle Jones, a co-host of the third hour of NBC's "Today," says she is leaving the show for six weeks for necessary vocal-cord surgery and recovery.

"It's been a long time coming," Jones, 41, said on her show Thursday, adding that the following day would be her last before her medical hiatus. Around 2016, she recalled, while working the weekend edition, she found herself frequently and strongly clearing her throat before going on air. "And one of the producers got in my ear and she said, 'I think you should go to an ENT and see what's going on.' " Following that advice to see an ear, nose and throat doctor, Jones learned that she had a polyp on one vocal cord.

"And ever since then it's kind of given me grief," she said. "It went away for a little bit, I went to vocal therapy twice a week, and then within the last year it's back."

The throat issue has "really affected my life," Jones said. "In the mornings I get anxiety sometimes when the producers will say, 'Can you do a story this morning at 8 o'clock?' I get up 30 minutes early so I can do these vocal exercises so that I don't sound so hoarse. So I'm finally to a place where I just have to get it removed."

She additionally told People magazine that some days are "just better than others for whatever reason. It almost feels like I start the morning with a tank full of gas and by the end of the morning it's like I'm out. It's empty. I look at my scripts sometimes and I call them word mountains. And so what is a two-minute story for most reporters, they come in, they read the story and then they move on, I look at it and sometimes I just stare at it. ... It's almost like I'm ready to sing on Broadway, except all it is, is a two-minute story."

She stressed on "Today," "It's important, I think, to talk about it because it's something that we take for granted, which is our vocal health."

Her recovery, she said, will include "two weeks specifically of no talking. And that means no whispering," no throat-clearing and even no exercise. "They just want me to kind of sit still." She has booked a hotel room for at least part of her recovery time, and has explained the situation to her and husband Uche Ojeh's children — son Kayin, 10, and twins Uche and Clara, 7.

"There's a piece of me that feels like it's a little bit of grace," she said of her enforced silence and rest. "Because it's a gift to sit still and do soul-searching, do some reading, do some writing. Nobody ever tells you you have permission to sit still."