Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour is set to leave CNN in June 2027 after 43 years with the network, marking the end of a distinguished career that saw her rise from an entry-level assistant to one of television’s most prominent international correspondents and anchors.
Gatekeepers News reports that Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, will reduce her daily programme, Amanpour, on CNN International to once a week from the beginning of 2027 before ending the show in May. She will leave the network the following month.
In a statement shared on Monday, the 68-year-old journalist said she was looking forward to “interesting new projects down the line”.
She will also end her PBS programme, Amanpour & Co., at the end of this year but will continue hosting her podcast, The Ex Files, alongside her former husband, Jamie Rubin, a former US diplomat.
“After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” Amanpour said.
She added that she would “always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism”, stressing: “Remember: Always be truthful, not neutral.”
Amanpour did not disclose the reason for her departure or directly refer to changes at the network. However, her exit comes as CNN enters a new era under Skydance ownership. Paramount, which owns Skydance, completed its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, bringing CBS and CNN under the same corporate umbrella.
Beyond her journalism career, Amanpour has spoken publicly about her diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2021 and two subsequent recurrences. She has described the disease as “the invisible killer” and encouraged people to “get all the scans that you can”.
Amanpour joined CNN in Atlanta in 1983 as an assistant. In a message on Monday, the network’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, recalled that her potential was not immediately recognised.
“Famously, one of her bosses told her back then that she didn’t have what it took to become a foreign correspondent — or to hold any on-air role at all,” Thompson wrote. “Boy, did she prove him wrong!”
She became a reporter and international correspondent seven years later, gaining widespread recognition in the early 1990s for her coverage of the Gulf War, conflicts in the Middle East and other global crises.
Reflecting on her work, Amanpour once described war reporting as “a sense of mission, it’s a sense of purpose, it’s a sense of being able to tell a story”.
Throughout her career, she sought to make international affairs accessible to American audiences, insisting that complex global issues deserved serious coverage.
“I’ve never believed that things are too complicated to put on American television,” she told The Associated Press in 2023. “I’ve never talked down to an audience. I’ve never believed that they just want to know what’s happening in their backyard.”
She has also credited her mixed Iranian and British heritage with giving her a distinctive perspective on international affairs.
“Because of my upbringing — I’m half-Iranian and half-British — I’ve had the great privilege of being able to see the world from two very distinct perspectives,” she said. “I’ve always spoken out about the need to bridge gaps. I know we can live in a world that’s not 100% tribalized.”
In her farewell remarks, Amanpour expressed gratitude to the field crews and programme teams who worked alongside her throughout her career, recalling assignments in some of the world’s most challenging conflict zones.
“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,” she wrote.
She added that they had worked together to seek “the facts, the evidence and the humanity”, ensuring CNN could “always broadcast the truth about the world and to the world, without fear nor favor”.
