One of the biggest names in the history of daytime television has passed away.

Phil Donahue, who hosted the Phil Donahue Show, died yesterday (Sunday, August 18) at the age of 88, multiple outlets confirm.

TODAY was the first to confirm the news of his passing. They said they received a statement from the family which announcing that Donahue passed away peacefully following a long illness.

He was surrounded by his family at the time of his passing — including his wife Marlo Thomas.

The pair met when she was a guest on his show in 1977. They married in 1980.

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Through the '80s and much of the '90s, Donahue’s daytime talk show made headlines for covering serious topics including child abuse in the catholic church and hosting a Democratic presidential debate between Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown Jr. in April 1992.

Donahue is credited with perfecting the talk format in daytime television. In fact, Oprah Winfrey said in a 2002 issue of O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine that if there had been "no Phil Donahue show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey show."

"He was the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes — that we're intelligent, we're concerned about the world around us and we want the best possible lives for ourselves," Oprah said. 

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