Tragic Details About Tamron Hall

Tamron Hall became a household name by rising up the ranks in television news. After getting a broadcast journalism degree from Temple University, she started her career in Bryan, Texas. From there, Hall made stops in Dallas and Chicago, before joining NBC News as a reporter and anchor. In a career that seemingly peaked with a highly coveted spot on Today in 2014, she became the first Black woman to have the title. The moment was a dream come true for Hall, who described the moment as "walking on cloud nine," to Essence. It was a moment the journalist worked hard for. But the moment came crashing down in 2017, with her tabloid-worthy departure from the history-making gig on the popular morning show, which we'll detail momentarily.

Fortunately, in her subsequent break from the television screen, Hall was able to find a moment of deep introspection. She also found love, and started a family. In an inspirational turnaround, Hall then landed her own daytime talk show in 2019. As of this writing, it seems like Hall has it all, but she got to this moment after a series of hardships. These are the tragic details about Tamron Hall.

One of Tamron Hall's biggest pains was losing her step-sister, Renate. On her eponymous show, she described Renate as "an "effortless energy of love." But in 2004, her "big sister," as Hall affectionately referred to her, was found dead in the pool of her Houston home, having apparently been beaten. Hall has rarely spoken about this pivotal moment in her life in detail, but she made an exception on her show in October 2019 to chat about the loss with Renate's son, Leroy Moore (pictured above). "We never discussed it. Because I didn't know what to say," Hall revealed about her family's long-held silence on the matter. 

Hall says Renate was frequently in abusive relationships, and that there was only one person of interest in her murder case. "Do we know who did this to her as defined by a court of law? No," Hall told People, adding, "But I can tell you I witnessed an act of violence and there were only two other people in that room." At the time of this writing, the case remains unsolved.

Renate's death is painful for Hall, but she has found a way to use those feelings to inspire impactful change. In 2016, Hall launched the The Tamron ♥ Renate Fund, with Safe Horizon, an organization that provides services for victims of abuse and violent crime. "No one deserves what happened to my sister," she told People.

By the end of January of 2017, word started to spread that NBC was giving Megyn Kelly the Today slot then-occupied by Tamron Hall and Al Roker, resulting in the cancellation of Today's Take. Given the show's success, many people, including Hall, were shocked.

A few days later, NBC made Hall's departure official, after releasing a statement to media outlets (via Deadline) stating that Hall's contract with the network was ending, and she had chosen not to renew it. The statement included a message from Hall, in which she expressed, "The last ten years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I'm grateful."

But, there was more to the story. Two years later, Vulture reported that Hall, while speaking at a panel for Vulture Festival 2019, said she was given the option to "take a deal that would have placed her elsewhere at NBC." Instead, she made the "easy decision" to leave the network entirely: "It wasn't that I did not know my value. It's that others did not know my value." Hall shed some more light on her departure with People (via Page Six) revealing, "The last week I was on Today, I filled in for Savannah Guthrie, who'd gone on maternity leave. I filled in for Lester Holt all while I was doing my MSNBC show plus shooting Deadline Crime. Hall felt NBC's offers to keep her on, but working on "these odd little things" were "insulting" given the contributions she made. 

In June 2014, Tamron Hall stunned home viewers when she did something that was unheard of in the land of television news — especially for Black women. She wore her natural hair on Today (shown above), which means she wore her hair how it grew on her head. The moment meant a lot to Black women, who were inspired to accept themselves the way they are, instead of living up to Eurocentric beauty standards.

After taking a trip to rural Utah to shoot an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Hall decided to save herself the trouble and sleep in before work. On Twitter she explained, she only got a couple hours of sleep, and was "simply too tire[d] to blow dry and flat iron" her hair. It proved to be a better reason than any to try something new.

Curly Nikki, a natural hair blog, gave a little more insight into Hall's decision. Apparently the blog's author had taken a trip to South Africa with Hall months prior, in which Hall revealed, "she'd have to spend hours — that she could've spent resting or preparing — manipulating her hair to meet the straight hair standard of beauty," unlike her white counterparts. In a tweet, Hall confirmed that Curly Nikki was the one who encouraged her to rock her curls. She has since gone back to wearing it straight, but says she chooses to "embrace both."

Although Tamron Hall found great success in her professional life, it came at the expense of her love life. By the time Hall was 46 years old, she still wasn't married, which is by no means tragic, however, she did tell Steve Harvey (via Essence) that she "had been engaged a couple times," but nothing stuck. In fact, she told Harvey that her fame actually made dating harder. "I feel it's tougher for the guys, because if I break up with them, then they can go on and be forced to watch me on TV everyday," said Hall. Not only that, but, "work was my real boyfriend," she spilled.  

But in 2017, Hall used her Today exit to her advantage, when she started dating Steven Greener, a music manager. She revealed to People, "Steven was my first and only boyfriend who did not have to turn on the TV to see me, and I think that's been important." Hall had known Greener for years before they started dating, but losing her 9-5 allowed her to see him in a new light. "The fear factor of 'What's going on with my spot? Am I going to keep this job?' fell away, and I could really see Steven," said Hall.

In March of 2019, she shocked fans in an Instagram post announcing she was pregnant, while simultaneously sharing that she was married to Greener. She told People he is her "deepest, greatest love." 

After Tamron Hall left Today in February 2017, she continued to say "no" to opportunities she didn't serve her. She told People (via Page Six), "After 25 years in the business, I felt some of the offers that were coming in were insulting." Four months later, "it was June, and the right thing had not come."

That summer, Hall thought she had found the right opportunity when she got a call from Harvey Weinstein, but it proved not to be so. Recalling the ill-fated, would-be partnership during her first show, Hall said she got the offer from Weinstein the same day she was celebrating the anniversary of a domestic violence shelter. But after news of Weinstein's rape allegations came forth in October 2017, Hall balked at the daytime talk show that was already in the works with the disgraced producer. She told the HuffPost that Weinstein's actions were "horrifying," and that she started taking steps to sever ties with him on the day the allegations broke. By March 2018, The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy, and five months later, Hall struck a deal with ABC instead.

Tamron Hall premiered on September 9, 2019. Prior to its premiere, Hall told Glamour, "I get emotional thinking about it. It's been a hell of a journey. ... With this show, whatever the outcome, I will be proud of myself." Viewers clearly missed Hall's presence on television. They gave her Hall a warm welcome-back with strong ratings.