The decorated correspondent Christiane Amanpour said on Monday that she would depart CNN next year, exiting the network she has called home since 1983.
Ms. Amanpour, 68, has most recently served as CNN’s chief international anchor, based in London. She rose to prominence for her on-the-ground reports beginning in 1990 from the Persian Gulf war, and she later broadcast from conflict zones around the world, including Bosnia, Rwanda and Afghanistan.
In a statement, she said she had made her decision “after many months of thought and a few sleepless nights.” Her show on CNN International, “Amanpour,” will be scaled back to once a week in January before concluding in June. Her PBS program, “Amanpour & Co.,” will also end.
Ms. Amanpour added that she would pursue “interesting new projects down the line.”
Mark Thompson, the chief executive of CNN, wrote in a note to the newsroom that he and Ms. Amanpour had been in discussions over her future “for some months.”
“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,” he wrote.
Ms. Amanpour, among the most famous faces in television news, had reduced her on-air obligations in recent years. She also started a podcast, “The Ex Files,” with her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin, a former diplomat and journalist, which she said she planned to continue.
CNN’s parent company was acquired this month by Skydance, the budding media conglomerate overseen by the tech scion David Ellison. In May, during an appearance in London, Ms. Amanpour said she was “concerned” about the coming acquisition, citing what she perceived as editorial changes at CBS News since Mr. Ellison took over that news division in 2025.
“I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?” she said at the time, describing an “ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction, potentially, of ‘60 Minutes,’” a program to which she once contributed. (CBS has rejected accusations of bias in its coverage.)
Neither Ms. Amanpour nor Mr. Thompson referred to the Skydance acquisition in their statements on Monday.
Ms. Amanpour was born in London to an Iranian father and British mother, and spent time in Tehran as a child. She moved to Rhode Island in the 1970s and got her start in journalism at local news affiliates; she later joined CNN as an assistant at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta.
“One of her bosses told her back then that she didn’t have what it took to become a foreign correspondent,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “Or to hold any on-air role at all. Boy, did she prove him wrong!”
In her statement on Monday, Ms. Amanpour said she “will always be rooting for CNN” and “its history of independent journalism.” She added, “Remember: Always be truthful, not neutral.”
