"It's not even like she's the sun and I'm a planet. It's more desperate and pitiful than that," Maddow continued. "It's more like she's a planet and I'm a satellite and I'm up there beep beep beeping at her and blinking my lights and just trying to make her happy."
Maddow said her partner is recovering and will be OK, but that it didn't seem that way at the outset of her illness. Maddow said she's tested negative so far for the virus.
She is the host of MSNBC's most-watched show and did the broadcast from inside her home, encountering some technical difficulties before laying out their coronavirus experience.
She issued an emotional plea to her fellow Americans, reminding them that self-isolating is not just about protecting themselves but about protecting those they love too.
As the country prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving next week - a holiday that usually means gatherings of people across the US, Maddow warned people that there simply is not room for them in hospitals.
"Just believe me: whatever you have calculated into your life that is acceptable risk, as inevitable risk, something that you are willing to go through because of the virus because, statistically, you know, it'll probably be fine for you and your loved ones... I'm just here to tell you to recalibrate that," she added.
"Frankly the country needs you to recalibrate there. Broadly speaking, there's no room for you in the hospital anymore. For the sake of your country, you really can't get sick and go to the hospital right now."
The video has been viewed millions of times online, as people echo Maddow's plea.
"Don't get this thing. Do whatever you can to keep from getting it," she said. "For Thanksgiving next week, you really are just going to have it at home without people coming over."
On Twitter, people praised her courage in telling her story, saying they were "moved to tears".
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."
- With AP
