TW: The content includes references to topics such as sexual assault and suicide. Reach out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide or would like emotional support, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Helpline at 1-800-273-8255. 

Sheryl Underwood is no stranger to audiences, having been the host of CBS’ daytime talk show, The Talk. She is an outstanding comedian with several awards to her name and has been making people laugh for decades on the talk show.

In 2017, her contributions on The Talk were finally recognized when she won the Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Hosts Daytime Emmy. But beneath all the laughter and jokes, Underwood has gone through a fair deal of heartbreak and pain. 

She has talked all about it on the show, from her sexual assaults to the death of her husband. 

Sheryl Underwood’s Life and Her Husband

While discussing famed fashion designer Kate Spade’s suicide on the show, Underwood got emotional. She recalled her late husband, who also took his own life. 

I’m kind of emotional about this because, as you know, my husband killed himself. You will never know. For people who think they know, you will never know. You’ll never know if its clinical depression. You’ll never know if it’s financial stress. 

Underwood, who had not spoken about her tragic loss for over a decade, got candid in an interview with People in 2016. The host had fallen in love with Michael, a chef, and in 1987, the couple got married. Her husband was struggling with clinical depression. 

After a failed attempt at overdose, her husband took his life by jumping off a building three years into their marriage. The host shared that she could never forget the day. She had made him a German chocolate cake that morning and asked him to drop the bills in the mailbox. 

She thought she would be seeing him when she got home, but he never came back.

This is just one of the heartbreaking experiences in Underwood’s life. The TV personality had a dark childhood. She was sexually abused multiple times, and her mother blamed her for it when she walked in on one of the attacks. 

She even witnessed her mother stabbing her father during an argument. To escape her family, she joined the Air Force Reserve, but during her en route to an Air Force station in Illinois, she was raped, and her attacker was never caught.

Sheryl Underwood on Coping with Her Pain

Despite everything she’s been through, the comedian explained that she was content with where she wound up and didn’t want to change anything about her life. 

She noted that everything she went through made her stronger and helped her learn so much about herself. During her husband’s death, she blamed herself, but she got through the loss with the belief that God didn’t give anyone more than they could handle. 

Underwood noted that humor and sharing her stories helped her through her tough times. This is why Underwood is open in her standup comedy and on daytime TV. She explained that in remembering her tragedies, she wanted to make it better for the next person.