CNN’s chief international anchor of Iranian origin, Christiane Amanpour, has announced she will leave the organisation next year after more than four decades with the network.

“After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!” Amanpour, one of the most influential names in the international media, said in a statement released on Monday.

The 68-year-old veteran broadcaster 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.”

CNN chairman Mark Thompson described her as “one of the most trusted and beloved journalists anywhere” and confirmed the network would take time to celebrate her extraordinary contribution “before she departs next year”.

In an internal memo sent to CNN staff on Monday morning, Thompson wrote: “Christiane has thought carefully about this decision, and she and I have been discussing it for some 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. In the meantime, on behalf of the entire CNN leadership team, I want to thank Christiane for 43 extraordinary years of remarkable journalism, loyalty and friendship.”

Amanpour began her journey at CNN in 1983 as an entry-level assistant on the international assignment desk in Atlanta, earning just USD 124 a week.

Over the following four decades, her fearless reporting from foreign front lines turned her into one of global broadcasting’s most recognisable and revered figures.

Reflecting on her tenure, Amanpour paid tribute to those behind the cameras. “I want to thank all the amazingly talented people I’ve worked with throughout this incredible journey, especially my beloved show teams and field crews,” she said.

Her career tracked every major international crisis of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In her statement, she recalled her “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”.

She added: “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 favour.”

Born in London in 1958 to an Iranian father and an English mother, Amanpour spent her early years in Tehran before returning to the UK for school. The 1979 Iranian Revolution forced her family into exile—an upheaval that ultimately sparked her lifelong passion to report from the places where history is being forged.

Her big breakthrough came during the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the subsequent 1990–91 Persian Gulf War. However, it was her blistering coverage of the 1992–1995 Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War that permanently defined her journalism. Reporting under shellfire in body armour, she insisted on holding world leaders accountable for mass atrocities, famously rejecting false equivalence by declaring that “objectivity doesn’t mean treating all sides equally; it means giving each side a hearing.”

Beyond conflict zones, Amanpour established herself as a formidable interviewer of world leaders, challenging figures ranging from Yasser Arafat, Hosni Mubarak, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Vladimir Putin and multiple US presidents. In 2022, she made global headlines by refusing to wear an unexpected headscarf demanded by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for an interview in New York, prompting his team to cancel the sit-down.

Since 2009, she has anchored her flagship international interview programme, Amanpour, alongside her duties for PBS and CNN International.