The departure timetable

Christiane Amanpour, 68, will leave CNN in June 2027 after 43 years with the network, which announced the decision on Monday, 19 October 2026. Her CNN International program is being cut to one episode a week from January 2027 and ends in late May, after she had already reduced it to a few days a week in January 2025. Her PBS program, Amanpour & Company, also ends at the close of 2026. CNN chief Mark Thompson told staff in an internal note that the timing was right for her, both personally and professionally. In her own statement, Amanpour said the decision followed many months of reflection and a few sleepless nights, and that she was not leaving journalism. She also pledged to keep backing CNN's tradition of independent reporting, and her podcast The Ex Files, made with her ex-husband Jamie Rubin, a former US diplomat, will go on.

Career at CNN

Amanpour joined CNN in 1983 as an assistant in Atlanta, three years after the channel started, and became an international correspondent in 1990. Her profile grew with reports from the Persian Gulf War, and she later covered conflicts in Bosnia, where she was made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo for her reporting on the siege, as well as Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Israel and Libya, as well as Hurricane Katrina in the United States. In 1992 she became CNN's head of foreign correspondents, and from 2009 she hosted daily interviews on CNN International. Her interview subjects have included Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi. From 1996 to 2005 she also reported for CBS's 60 Minutes, had a brief spell at ABC News in 2010 and returned to CNN International in 2012. Her awards include 11 Emmys and four Peabody awards.

The Paramount takeover and newsroom concerns

Paramount Skydance closed its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent, on 6 October. Figures vary across reports, from about $81 billion to about $110 billion, with the larger number including debt. The takeover puts CNN under David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is described as an ally of Donald Trump, who has repeatedly accused CNN of bias. After Ellison named Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News, her staff changes and reorganisation caused disputes among journalists, and one condition for closing the deal was a commitment to set up a council on editorial independence at CNN and CBS News. Amanpour had voiced concern publicly about CNN's new owners before the deal closed, while neither CNN nor she has given a reason for leaving.

Health and what comes next

In 2021 Amanpour publicly disclosed an ovarian cancer diagnosis, and the illness later returned. She described the disease as an invisible killer and urged people to take every available screening test. Her weekly CNN program runs until late May 2027, and she has said she is looking forward to new projects. She will keep reporting and travelling for CNN until she leaves the network in June 2027.