Christiane Amanpour is signing off. CNN’s chief international anchor announced Monday that she will leave the network in June 2027, ending more than four decades with the channel that made her a household name around the world.
“After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” Amanpour, 68, said in a statement.
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman and CEO, broke the news to staff in a memo Monday morning and said the two had been talking it over for months. “Like so many CNNers who will hear the news today, I’m very sorry to see her go, but I’ve come to accept that this is the right time for her, both personally and professionally,” Thompson wrote, TheWrap reported. He called her “one of the most trusted and beloved journalists anywhere” and said CNN will honor her before she goes.
When Amanpour’s shows end
Amanpour is stepping away in stages. Her daily programs on CNN and PBS end with 2026, which means December is the last month for “Amanpour & Company,” the PBS show she has hosted since 2018.
Early next year, her CNN International interview program, “Amanpour,” drops to once a week, then ends in May. She’ll keep reporting and traveling for CNN until her exit at the end of June, CNN reported. Neither announcement said what happens to “The Amanpour Hour,” her weekly show on CNN’s U.S. network.
The slowdown didn’t come out of nowhere. She had already trimmed her hosting schedule to several days a week in January 2025, according to TheWrap.
Fans won’t lose her voice entirely. Amanpour will keep making her Global podcast, “The Ex Files,” with her ex-husband, former U.S. diplomat Jamie Rubin, and said she looks forward to “interesting new projects down the line.”
A career built in the field
Amanpour started at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters in 1983, as an assistant on the news desk. In his memo, Thompson recalled that one of her early bosses told her she didn’t have what it took to become a foreign correspondent or work on air. “Boy, did she prove him wrong!” he wrote.
She got her first overseas posting as an international correspondent in 1990, and the Persian Gulf War became her breakout story. From there, she covered war and upheaval in Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine, sat across from presidents and prime ministers, and picked up Emmys, Peabodys and George Polk Awards along the way.
Those 43 years include one detour. Amanpour left CNN in 2010 to anchor “This Week” on ABC News, then came back to CNN International in 2012 under a deal that let her keep reporting for ABC, too.
A new era at CNN
Her announcement lands less than two weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance completed its purchase of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, which put CNN and CBS News under the same owner. Thompson remains in charge of CNN under the new ownership.
In her statement, Amanpour said she will “always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism.” Then she left her colleagues with a phrase long tied to her reporting: “Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”
What’s next
CNN hasn’t said who, if anyone, will take over the international interview slot when “Amanpour” ends in May.
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