The anchor who filed from the Gulf War, Bosnia and Mogadishu is leaving the network she joined as a desk assistant 43 years ago.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, told colleagues on Monday, Oct. 19, that she is ending her run at the network.
“After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” she wrote in a memo to staffers.
Amanpour, 68, works out of CNN’s London bureau. An entry-level news desk assistant on the international assignment desk in Atlanta was what the company hired her as in 1983, three years after the network launched.
Weekly in January, Gone by June
Her exit will come in stages. Both her daily CNN International show and “Amanpour & Company,” her PBS program, end at the close of 2026.
The CNN International program then scales back to once a week in January 2027 and runs until May 2027. She leaves CNN in June 2027, and she will keep reporting and traveling the world for the network through that month. She also plans to continue her podcast, “The Ex Files,” a Global production with her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin.
She had already eased off once before. In January 2025, she cut her eponymous nightly interview program, which she had hosted on CNN International since 2009, down to a few days a week.
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman and editor-in-chief, broke the news to the newsroom in his own memo on the morning of Oct. 19. He and Amanpour had been talking about her decision for some months, he wrote, and while he is sorry to lose her, he accepts that she picked the right moment, personally and professionally.
Boy, Did She Prove Him Wrong
Thompson called her “one of the most trusted and beloved journalists anywhere.” He also recalled her first weeks in the Atlanta newsroom, when a boss told her she lacked what it took to be a foreign correspondent, or to hold any on-air role. “Boy, did she prove him wrong!” Thompson wrote.
He closed the note this way: “In the meantime, on behalf of the entire CNN leadership team, I want to thank Christiane for 43 extraordinary years of remarkable journalism, loyalty and friendship.”
No Mention of the New Owner
The announcement landed less than two weeks after Paramount Skydance closed its acquisition of CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery. That deal put CNN and CBS News under the same corporate umbrella, now called Skydance, and Thompson still runs the news network for the new owners. Ellison has promised editorial independence.
Colleagues inside CNN were described as caught off guard by the announcement. Her departure statement made no mention of Ellison or the Skydance takeover.
The network’s coverage of Donald Trump has drawn outspoken comment from Amanpour before. CNN’s town hall with Trump, then campaigning for a return to the White House, drew her public criticism in 2023. She said she had shared her views with then-CEO Chris Licht.
From the Gulf War to Gaza
She has been an international correspondent since 1990, and the Persian Gulf War was her first major assignment. “From my very first big exciting assignment covering the First Gulf War, to the horrors of the Bosnian War, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran and all the points in between, it’s the teams and the camaraderie that counted so much, as we together battled to seek the facts, the evidence and the humanity, so that CNN could always broadcast the truth about the world and to the world, without fear nor favor,” she told staffers in the same note.
Since then she has covered the Bosnian War, Rwanda, Afghanistan, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel/Hamas war in Gaza. A photographer captured her in 1992 reporting on the U.S.-led peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu. She has won multiple Emmy, Peabody and George Polk awards.
Her interview subjects include Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, former President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iranian presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Rouhani.
Amanpour left CNN once before, in 2010, for ABC News’ Sunday show “This Week.” An arrangement that also let her keep working with ABC News brought her back to CNN International in 2012. She hosts “The Amanpour Hour” on CNN’s U.S. network, and “Amanpour & Company” launched on PBS in 2018.
“Remember: always be truthful, not neutral,” she wrote to staffers.
