MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says longtime partner nearly died from coronavirus
Maddow, who has been quarantining, detailed the situation publicly for the first time
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said on Thursday night that her longtime partner, Susan Mikula, nearly died from a bad case of coronavirus and cautioned viewers to take the virus seriously.
“She’s still sick, but she’s going to be OK, and we’re not scared anymore like we were,” Maddow told viewers.
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Maddow, who has been quarantining after saying she came into close contact with someone who tested positive, detailed the situation publicly for the first time.
“I do just want to tell you what happened to me in the hopes that you might take it on as something that might be helpful for thinking about you and your own family,” Maddow said. “OK, so if you know anything about me off of TV, if you know me personally at all, then the foremost thing you probably know about me is that I am in love. Susan and I have been together for more than 21 years. It was love at first sight. That has never waned. She is the center of my universe, and it’s not even like she’s the sun and I’m a planet. It’s more desperate and pitiful than that. It’s more like she’s the planet and I’m the satellite up there.”
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At one point, Maddow took off her microphone and earpiece and walked away from the camera, telling viewers she had to handle a beeping noise in her home and the camera was essentially a still shot of her home office, with no crew members inside. She then returned, put her equipment back on and finished the story.
“Susan has been sick, with Covid, these past couple of weeks. At one point we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her and that’s why I’ve been away,” Maddow said.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said on Thursday night that her longtime partner Susan nearly died from a bad case of coronavirus and cautioned viewers to take the virus seriously.
“Susan tested positive two weeks ago. We separated from each other that day, because I tested negative that day, she tested positive. So she and I have both been alone since then while ... I’ve continued to test. I’ve stayed negative. And she has not only been positive, over this time, she’s gotten sicker and sicker while I tried to care for her while still staying physically apart from her,” Maddow continued. “And the bottom line is that she’s going to be fine. She is recovering. She’s still sick, but she’s going to be OK, and we’re not scared anymore like we were.”
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Maddow then explained that it “didn’t feel like it was going OK at the outset” of her partner’s diagnosis, urging viewers to take coronavirus seriously and suggested that people think about the most important person in their life when deciding what risks to take.
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“I would have done anything. I would have moved mountains for it to have been me who was sick these past couple of weeks instead of Susan. I still would give anything for that. But this thing does not give you that choice,” Maddow said.
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“You can’t say, I’m willing to just get it myself and play the odds. You don’t get that choice. It won’t necessarily be you. It will be the person you most care about in the world, and how can you bear that? And all you can do to stop that is move heaven and earth to not get it and to not transmit it. It is just — again, I’m not going to go on about this at further length. I will just tell you personally this thing is scary as hell, and whatever you’ve been willing to do to risk getting it, don’t. Just don’t do it.”
Maddow will continue to broadcast from home until it’s deemed safe for her to return to work.