Rachel Maddow made an emotional return Thursday night to her MSNBC show, revealing her longtime partner’s bout with COVID-19 was so serious they thought it might kill her.

Hosting the show from home, the 47-year-old political pundit joked that she was physically fine but knew she appeared pale due to her inability to apply makeup on her own.

She then dropped the bombshell that her 62-year-old partner of 21 years, Susan Mikula, has been battling coronavirus and that, early on, the prognosis appeared dire.

“At one point, we really thought it was a possibility it might kill her and that’s why I’ve been away,” Maddow said.

“She is the center of my life,” she added.

Maddow explained that the diagnosis forced her off the air and into a two-week quarantine on Nov. 6. She said she’s tested negative so far for the virus.

She then emotionally described the intensity of their bond, likening herself to a planet orbiting around Mikula, whom Maddow referred to as her sun.

Maddow said she would have gladly traded places with Mikula to spare her the pain.

Maddow then called the disease “scary as hell,” while beseeching her millions of viewers to remain safe.

“Don’t get this thing. Do whatever you can to keep from getting it,” Maddow urged her fans. “For Thanksgiving next week, you really are just going to have it at home without people coming over.”

She added that Mikula is likely to recover but the pair continues to remain physically separated.

Maddow said her quarantine would end soon, but she’d be “broadcasting like this until it’s safe for me to be around my coworkers.”

Watch: Rachel @Maddow reports that she's been off the air for most of the past two weeks because her longtime partner Susan Mikula is sick with Covid-19 – so sick that "at one point we really thought that there was a possibility that it might kill her." Mikula is recovering now. pic.twitter.com/MwN7cvQBRz

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 20, 2020