CNN mainstay Christiane Amanpour is leaving the network amid turmoil following the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. Amanpour, 68, will step away in June 2027.
“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 in a statement Monday, as reported by Variety.
She added that she “looks forward to interesting new projects down the line, and will always be rooting for CNN and maintaining its history of independent journalism. Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”
Amanpour has been a broadcast news reporter for more than 30 years, mainly covering international affairs, including conflicts and wars. Since 2009, she has hosted an evening program for CNN’s international channel. She’s also hosted Amanpour & Company for PBS since 2017.
Her daily CNN show and her PBS program are slated to conclude by the end of 2026, Amanpour told CNN staffers in a memo sent Monday and reported by Variety. She shared plans to continue her weekly CNN show through May 2027 before a “smooth transition” away from the network.
“Christiane has thought carefully about this decision, and she and I have been discussing it for some months,” said CNN CEO Mark Thompson in a statement, per Variety. “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.”
Amanpour joined the network in eastern Europe in 1986, covering conflicts in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. She then served as CNN’s chief international correspondent from 1992 to 2010.
After a brief exit from the network during which she worked at ABC, Amanpour returned in 2012.
“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,” Amanpour wrote to staffers.
She will continue on with her podcast, The Ex Files, alongside her ex-husband and former official at the U.S. State Department, Jamie Rubin.
Amanpour’s exit announcement comes just days after the finalization of the merger of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros., with Paramount-Skydance. CNN is now under the control of the new entity, referred to as simply Skydance.
She hinted at concern over the merger in May, rooted specifically in Skydance’s management of CBS News, which has been the subject of significant scrutiny since the October 2025 installation of editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
“I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s under way, but I am obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,” Amanpour said at the time.
“I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already, like CBS News, right?” she added.
“I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there? I mean, hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction potentially of ‘60 Minutes.’”
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