The well-known “King of Daytime Talk” Phil Donahue, who The Phil Donahue Show, died on Sunday, August 18, at the age of 88, PEOPLE can confirm.

In a statement first reported by the Today At the broadcast’s release on Monday, August 19, Donahue’s family said the groundbreaking talk show journalist died at his home surrounded by his family, including his wife of 44 years, actress Marlo Thomas, as well as “his sister, children, grandchildren and beloved golden retriever Charlie.”

The statement said he “passed away peacefully after a long illness.”

Donahue’s family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund.

Born on December 21, 1935, Donahue grew up in Cleveland and began his media career in talk radio and television in the late 1950s. He launched his eponymous talk show in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967. The show gained credibility and recognition for tackling controversial topics and putting viewers behind bars at the Ohio State Penitentiary for a week-long series in 1971.

The Phil Donahue Show devoted his hour-long show to individual topics such as child abuse in the Catholic Church, feminism and race relations and was the first in which viewers could ask questions of the guests. In 1974, when he moved the show to Chicago and changed its name to DonahueThe presenter has found his niche and at the same time renewed the daily format.

“When Phil came to Chicago, he found his most important element – the Chicago studio audience,” said Ron Weiner, former director of Donahue, told WGN-TV in 2023. “From that point on, the show really took off.”

Donahue added: “One day I just walked into the audience and it was clear that there was no Donahue show if I hadn’t somehow accidentally attracted the audience.”

In January 1985, the show moved to New York City. During his live broadcast from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Donahue continued to break new ground in daytime television, interviewing politicians, activists, musicians, athletes and actors.

He was the first presenter to record five episodes in the Soviet Union in January 1987, according to Tampa Bay TimesIn March 1990, Donahue interviewed Nelson Mandela in his first talk show appearance, broadcast via satellite from Lusaka, Zambia. The show featured the most important televised debate between Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown Jr. in April 1992 – without an audience, moderator or commercial break.

Other celebrity guests over the years have included Sammy Davis Jr., Ralph Nader, Elton John, Gloria Steinem, Gregory Peck, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Dolly Parton, Muhammad Ali, Michael J. Fox, Roseanne Barr, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor and many more.

Donahue won 20 Emmy Awards (10 for outstanding host and 10 for the talk show itself), paving the way for other daytime hosts such as Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Ricki Lake, Montel Williams and Oprah Winfrey – whose show, like Donahue’s, had its roots in Chicago.

“If there is no Phil Donahue show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey Show,” Winfrey wrote in the September 2002 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine. “He was the first to recognize that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes – that we are intelligent, that we care about the world around us, and that we want the best lives possible for ourselves.”

New York City remained the home of the talk show until its last recording after 29 years in September 1996. After a six-year hiatus, the namesake returned to primetime television in 2002 to Donahue, an interview-based program. However, MSNBC canceled the program of the same name in February 2003 due to low viewership. The New York Times. After the show was canceled, he co-directed and produced the 2007 documentary Body of War.

Donahue married his second wife, Thomas, in 1980 after the two met in 1977 when she was a guest on his talk show. In a throwback post on Facebook, Thomas said that “the chemistry was instant.” The couple later co-authored the book What makes a marriage last: 40 famous couples reveal the secrets of a happy life in 2020.

In May 2023, Thomas revealed to PEOPLE that “love, listening and lust” were the keys to her happy marriage with Donahue.

She said: “You have to listen, then you know what the other person is really thinking and going through. You have to love each other. And without desire you have nothing,” before adding: “He is the best. I am very lucky.”

In May 2024, Donahue was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden along with Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh.

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Donahue leaves behind Thomas and four children – Michael, Kevin, Daniel and Mary Rose – from his first marriage. His son James “Jim” Patrick predeceased him, dying of an aortic aneurysm in 2014 at the age of 51.