Rachel Maddow Speaks On Longtime Partner Almost Dying From COVID, Urges Viewers To Be Safe

Rachel Maddow wants her viewers to take the coronavirus seriously after detailing how her long-term partner almost died from the novel virus.

The MSNBC anchor has been off air since a “close contact” tested positive for COVID-19.

At first, the newscaster did not reveal who potentially exposed her to the virus when she first went on her break. But, Maddow has since revealed it was her longtime partner, Susan Mikula, who contracted COVID-19.

Maddow returned to hosting The Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday, Nov. 19, from her home and shared her experience with the virus in hopes others would not have to go through something similar.

Rachel revealed just how important Susan is to her, describing her partner as “the center of my universe. My relationship with Susan is the only thing at the end of the day that I would kill or die for without hesitation.”

So when Susan tested positive for the virus a few weeks ago and didn’t get any better — reality set in for Rachel.

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She added, “And at one point we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her.”

She informed viewers, “What you need to know is that whoever is the most important person in your life, whoever you most love and most care for and most cherish in the world. That’s the person who you may lose, or who you may spend weeks up all night freaking out about and calling doctors all over all over the place and over and over again all night long, trying to figure out how to keep that person, breathing, and out of the hospital.”

“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 would still give anything for that,” said an emotional Rachel.

“But this thing does not give you that choice. You can’t say I’m willing to just get it myself and play the odds, you don’t get that choice.”

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She then added: “It won’t necessarily be you. It’ll 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.”

Rachel stated how many people may be willing to take an “acceptable risk,” but as she put it, “I’m just here to tell you to recalibrate that—frankly the country needs you to recalibrate that—because, broadly speaking: There’s no room for you in the hospital anymore.”

Susan is now “recovering” from the virus, but Rachel says it was “scary as hell” to think she could lose the love of her life. 

Rachel says she will continue to quarantine despite testing negative for the duration of the past month. In addition, she will broadcast from her home until “it’s safe for me to be around any of my co-workers again in the future.”