Infertility issues, a family member's violent end, and mourning a music icon. With her bubbly personality and infectious smile, Tamron Hall is one of daytime TV's most beloved hosts. But she's also faced many tragic setbacks throughout her life.
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00:00Infertility issues, a family member's violent end, and mourning a music icon.
00:06With her bubbly personality and infectious smile, Tamron Hall is one of daytime TV's
00:11most beloved hosts. But she's also faced many tragic setbacks throughout her life.
00:16In 2004, Tamron Hall's sister, Renata, was found floating in a pool in the backyard of her home,
00:23having been beaten to death. The killer has not been apprehended,
00:26but Renata had a history of dating violent men. For Hall, her sister's death wasn't something
00:32she really knew how to process, and neither did their family.
00:36Because we did not talk about it. We've never discussed it. Because I didn't know,
00:42you know, what to say."
00:43After Renata's death, Hall questioned how she handled her sister's past relationships
00:48and whether she could have done more to protect her. While speaking to Forbes,
00:52the TV personality confessed that she wished she'd handled Renata's situation differently.
00:57In particular, Hall recalled one time she came home and found Renata's room in disarray.
01:02There was a man with her, and Renata had a nasty bump on her head.
01:05But the man claimed to have had nothing to do with it. Hall told the outlet,
01:09"'I said to her partner, get out of my house. I kicked him out.
01:13But I also should have called the police. I should have encouraged my sister to file charges.
01:18At the time I was a local anchor. I was thinking, we don't want the police at our house.
01:22This will all go away.' Unfortunately, it didn't. The next day Renata invited the man back."
01:28Hall simply couldn't comprehend why her sister would do such a thing. She told Forbes,
01:33"'In that selfish moment of disappointment, I said, you both leave.'"
01:37You may not know this, but Hall was very good friends with legendary musician Prince.
01:41He even used a selfie of Hall as the cover image for If I Could Get Your Attention,
01:45which was released in 2015. The two stars first bonded over their love of both current
01:50affairs and their families, and their relationship eventually grew into a beautiful friendship.
01:56"'The only other person I spoke with or speak with more than Prince is my mother.
02:01This is the person I communicate with more than anyone.'"
02:04She added that when she'd spoken to him shortly before he passed away, he sounded just fine.
02:10Understandably, Hall never for a moment thought it would be their last conversation.
02:14She subsequently took to Ex to pay tribute to Prince after news of his death broke, writing,
02:19"'Like a bird without a song, I've lost one of my best friends today.
02:23I know he would have advice right now. Prince, I'm listening as always.'"
02:27While discussing their friendship on MSNBC,
02:30Hall reminisced about how fortunate she was to know Prince, saying,
02:34"'Prince was such a compassionate person. It wasn't just about his money and his royalties.
02:38He wanted to challenge what he saw was an unfair system for artists.'"
02:42"'That he was much more than music, and I think people know that.'"
02:46Hall dreamed of starting a family for years but couldn't get pregnant when she first tried in her
02:5030s. She went on to receive fertility treatments, but none of them worked, so the talk show host
02:56hit pause for a while. It was only when she was in her 40s that Hall tried to get pregnant again,
03:01and this time around, the stakes were much higher. During an interview with People,
03:06Hall recalled how differently she experienced the fertility clinic in her 40s,
03:10as opposed to when she previously first went there. She'd been more hopeful before,
03:14and now her chances of conceiving were even slimmer. When Hall finally got pregnant at the
03:19age of 48, she kept it a secret, since she didn't have it in her to publicly deal with
03:23the disappointment if she lost the baby. She told People,
03:27"'I was high risk, not just because of my age, but there were other medical factors, too.'"
03:32Luckily, her story had a happy ending, and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named
03:36Moses in 2019. While Hall initially did not want to know the baby's sex,
03:41she eventually caved a few weeks into her pregnancy, and cried when the doctor told
03:45her it was a boy. She'd been hoping for a girl. She revealed on the Me Becoming Mom podcast,
03:51"'I saw all of my fashion future float away. That sounds so vain, but it's true.
03:55And my husband said, I will one day tell Moses that you did that. I'm like, no, it's just tears.
04:00I visualized myself walking around with a little girl dressed exactly like me.'"
04:05Many are still scratching their heads trying to figure out why Hall unexpectedly decided
04:09to end her contract with The Today Show and NBC News in 2017. The popular talk show host
04:14hasn't been very open about the details, but she has admitted that leaving broke her heart.
04:20"'It was tough. It was tough.'"
04:22Hall's departure may or may not have had something to do with Megyn Kelly getting
04:26penciled into her designated time slot on Today. As Hall clarified to Closer Weekly,
04:31"'It wasn't that I did not know my value, it's that others did not know my value.
04:35It was an easy decision because there was no other decision to make.'"
04:39Hall also hinted that she wasn't being treated with the respect she thought she deserved,
04:43and had ultimately decided that enough was enough. Speaking to People a few years later,
04:48Hall detailed the aftermath of her resignation, acknowledging that she never thought she let
04:52her job at the network go. She told the outlet,
04:55"'I was in a fog. I thought, wow, is this how it goes down? Not knowing that so many of us
05:00lose things we think are important, and you have no idea that something better is right there.
05:05You've just got to persevere.' Looking back, though, leaving was the right thing to do.
05:09She said to People,
05:10"'I'm from the South, and there's a saying, it's not a setback. It's a setup for something else.'"
05:16If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
05:19you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
05:25You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
05:30For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org