Longtime CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, who started as a rookie assistant and became one of television’s most visible correspondents and anchors, covering war zones and hot spots for decades, will leave the network after 43 years.
Amanpour, the channel’s main international presenter, will reduce her daily show “Amanpour” on CNN International to once a week in early 2027, and end it in May, before leaving the channel the following month. She said in a statement Monday that she was looking forward to “new and exciting projects to come.”
Amanpour, 68, will also end her PBS show, “Amanpour & Co,” at the end of the year, she said in her statement shared by CNN. She will continue her podcast “The Ex Files” with her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin, a former American diplomat.
“After many months of reflection and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to part ways with CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” » said Amanpour. She added that she “will always support CNN and uphold its history of independent journalism. Remember: always be honest, not neutral.”
No reason given for his departure
Amanpour did not give a reason for his departure, nor specifically mention changes within his network. But his departure coincides with a new era for CNN as the company comes under new ownership, Sky Dance. After a year processSkydance-owned Paramount has completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery for $81 billion on October 6. The merger brings together two television news giants under one roof: CBS and CNN.
On a personal level, Amanpour has spoken openly about her 2021 ovarian cancer diagnosis and two subsequent recurrences, calling it an “invisible killer.” She urged others to “get every scan they can”.
Amanpour joined CNN as an assistant in Atlanta in 1983. In his own post Monday, CNN General Manager Mark Thompson wrote that at the time, her promise was not universally appreciated. “Famously, one of her bosses told her at the time that she didn’t have what it took to become a foreign correspondent – or to hold any on-air role,” Thompson wrote. “Boy, did she prove him wrong!” »
Fame came during the first Gulf War
Amanpour became an international reporter and correspondent seven years later. She rose to fame in the early 1990s covering the Gulf War, the Middle East conflict and many other flashpoints. War reporting is “a sense of mission, it’s a sense of purpose, it’s a sense of being able to tell a story,” she said.
Its goal was to bring international news – including complex stories – to American viewers. “I never thought things were too complicated to put on American television” she told the Associated Press in 2023. “I never criticized an audience. I never believed they just wanted to know what was going on in their backyard.”
Amanpour also noted that his education gave him a unique perspective.
“Because of my upbringing – I am half Iranian and half British – I have had the great privilege of being able to see the world from two very distinct perspectives,” she said. “I’ve always talked about the need to close the gaps. I know we can live in a world that is not 100% tribalized.”
In his remarks Monday, Amanpour thanked his field teams and exhibit teams.
“From my very first major, exciting assignment covering the first Gulf War, to the horrors of the Bosnian War, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran and all points in between, it was the teams and the camaraderie that meant so much,” she wrote, “as we fought together to pursue the facts, the evidence and the humanity, so that CNN could always broadcast the truth about the world and to the world, without fear or favor.”
Gn entert
