“Today” host Craig Melvin struggled to hold back tears during Monday’s broadcast after an emotional cancer story hit unexpectedly close to home. The segment showed a grandmother being surprised by her granddaughter as she underwent her final chemotherapy treatment. Melvin then revealed that his own mother was ringing the bell that same day after completing her breast cancer treatment.
The moment occurred during Jenna Bush Hager’s regular “Morning Boost” segment, which highlights uplifting stories and videos. Monday’s clip showed the granddaughter surprising her grandmother during her final chemotherapy treatment. When the video ended, Bush Hager looked across the desk and noticed Melvin becoming visibly emotional.
“Oh, Craig, you have the Monday feels over there,” Bush Hager said before describing the video as “pretty sweet.” Co-host Carson Daly tried to lighten the moment by joking, “Look, he does have a heart!” Melvin then explained why the grandmother’s story had produced such a personal reaction, telling his colleagues, “Yeah, well, my mom rang the bell today, so, yeah, that’s a good one.” Ringing the bell is a common cancer-treatment tradition used to mark the completion of treatment or a major phase of it.
Daly immediately recognized the connection and responded, “It hits home. That’s what the Boost does!” As Trending Politics reported, Melvin’s mother, Betty Jo Melvin, was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2025 after undergoing a routine mammogram. She later recalled being blindsided by the news, saying, “Getting the diagnosis was not what I expected the day that I got it,” and adding that she was “speechless.”
The diagnosis was especially difficult for the Melvin family because several relatives had already battled cancer. Betty said she found it difficult to tell her sons, Craig and Ryan, what doctors had discovered. “My youngest son, I lost my granddaughter to cancer, children’s cancer,” she said. “I lost my son to colon cancer about five years ago, so to tell them your mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer, it was hard. It took me several hours before I could call them and let them know.”
Craig Melvin’s half-brother, Lawrence Meadows, died from colon cancer in 2020. Melvin subsequently became an advocate for colorectal cancer screenings and early detection in his brother’s memory. His mother ringing the bell marked another major moment for a family that has endured several painful encounters with the disease, and it explained why the otherwise uplifting “Morning Boost” clip brought him to tears.
Watch the emotional moment here:
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Melvin has previously spoken about his mother’s central place in the family. In a 2023 birthday message, he called her “the rock of our family” and “the glue” holding it together. “Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays. I’m not me without her and neither is my brother, her siblings, or grands,” Melvin wrote. “She’s sacrificed her entire life so those around her can live better. The love that endures is beyond social media expression.”
Melvin, his wife Lindsay Czarniak, Betty, and other relatives also spent time together during a recent family vacation in South Carolina. He shared photographs from the trip and described the gathering as time spent with his “favorite people.” Melvin wrote that the vacation was “filled with beach days, good food, loud talking, spades playing, movie watching, mediocre golf, plenty of laughs, and a whole lot of family time. Always the best time of the year.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.