Christiane Amanpour to leave CNN after 43 years

CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, has announced that she is leaving after 43 years of working with the network.

She announced this in a statement on Monday, saying she would end her programme, Amanpour, in May and leave CNN at the end of June.

This brings an end to her career, which began in 1983 when she joined the organisation as an assistant on its international assignment desk.

Ms Amanpour said she came to the decision to “separate” from the network “after many months of thought and a few sleepless nights”.

She wrote, “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 humanity, so that CNN could always broadcast the truth about the world and to the world, without fear nor favour.”

She also encouraged CNN, urging it to “Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”

Ms Amanpour did not give a reason for her departure, nor did she specifically mention changes at her network.

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Her decision comes at a notable time for the network, now part of a larger media conglomerate called Skydance, run by David Ellison and backed heavily by Larry Ellison, David’s Trump-donor father and Oracle co-founder.

In her statement, Ms Amanpour seemed to nod to concerns about the network’s future, saying that she “will always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism”.

She has opened up about her ongoing treatment for ovarian cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2021, calling it “the invisible killer.”