Veteran CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour is preparing to leave the network after more than four decades, bringing one of CNN’s longest tenures to a close. Amanpour announced Monday that she will depart next summer after more than 43 years at CNN.
As Fox News reported [1], CNN CEO Mark Thompson laid out the timetable in a staff memo. “After more than 43 years at CNN, Christiane has decided that the time is right to begin a new chapter,” Thompson wrote.
Christiane Amanpour leaving CNN after 43 years, CEO says https://t.co/4H7FlFw8J0
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) October 19, 2026 [2]
“Early in 2027, she will scale back her CNN International show, ‘Amanpour,’ to once a week. The program will conclude in May, and she will leave CNN at the end of June.”
Thompson said he and Amanpour had been discussing her decision for months. “Christiane has thought carefully about this decision, and she and I have been discussing it for some months,” he wrote, adding that he had accepted this was the right time for her personally and professionally.
Amanpour thanked her viewers during a televised address and pointed to the pressures facing her and other CNN journalists. She emphasized that she intends to remain independent while she is at the network and after her departure.
“Now, you know I’ve always been fiercely independent, and I will continue to be that for you for as long as I am here and beyond,” Amanpour said. She also cited political and financial pressures, along with rising dangers faced by journalists in the field.
An update from me… https://t.co/AKLOEekEO2
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 19, 2026 [3]
Amanpour said she would continue rooting for CNN to maintain what she described as its history of independent journalism. In a written statement, she offered a familiar declaration about her approach to reporting: “Remember: always be truthful, not neutral.”
The announcement surprised CNN staffers. One employee called Amanpour the network’s “reigning titan,” while another described themselves as a “Christiane loyalist” and called her “the heart and soul of this company.”
That employee also argued that Amanpour’s stature could survive beyond CNN. “She has the power to chart her own course. Yes, she is synonymous with a brand, but she is also a bigger than the brand,” the staffer told Fox News Digital.
The 68-year-old journalist is admired by CNN colleagues and members of the liberal media, but she has also drawn sustained criticism. Amanpour rejects neutrality as the ultimate standard in reporting and has argued that journalists must focus on what they determine to be the truth.
“Both-siderism — on the one hand, on the other hand — is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth,” Amanpour told Columbia Journalism School graduates in 2023. She also warned against drawing false moral or factual equivalence while weighing evidence and hearing competing sides.
Her coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas has raised eyebrows among critics. In October 2023, weeks after the terrorist attack on Israel, Amanpour claimed “the rest of the world” agreed with Jordanian Queen Rania Al Abdullah’s complaint that the Western world showed greater support for Israel than for Palestinians.
She also reported that third-party negotiators were seeking a “hostage release on both sides,” language that implied Israel was holding civilian hostages alongside Hamas terrorists. Earlier that year, she apologized after claiming the murder of an Israeli rabbi’s family resulted from a “shootout.”
In November 2020, the Israeli government and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Amanpour for comparing the Trump presidency to Kristallnacht. Known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” the Nazi terror campaign against Jews in Germany and Austria resulted in at least 91 deaths and the vandalism of 7,500 Jewish businesses during the Holocaust, according to the source.
Amanpour later walked back those comments following intense backlash. Her departure is the first major journalist exit announced under CNN’s new corporate ownership after Skydance CEO and Paramount owner David Ellison closed his $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The transaction brought CNN, CBS, two legacy Hollywood studios and other television networks under Skydance. There has been no indication that Amanpour’s decision was connected to Ellison’s takeover, although she previously expressed concern about his ownership of CNN and his handling of CBS News.
Amanpour also publicly challenged Thompson’s predecessor, Chris Licht, over CNN’s 2023 Trump town hall. In May, she cited declining viewers, possible financial losses, the ideological realignment of CBS, and what she called the potential destruction of “60 Minutes” while discussing Ellison’s record.