Christiane Amanpour

Christiane Amanpour (born January 12, 1958, London, England) English-born journalist who, as a correspondent for CNN, was one of the leading war reporters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She later hosted the ABC news program This Week (2010–11) and the PBS interview series Amanpour & Company (2018– ).

Amanpour’s father, an Iranian airline executive, moved the family to Tehrān shortly after her birth. Politically connected and wealthy, the Amanpours led a privileged life in Iran. At age 11, Amanpour was sent back to England to attend the Holy Cross Convent School in Buckinghamshire. She stayed at Holy Cross until she was 16, when she went to the exclusive New Hall School, the oldest Roman Catholic girls’ school in the United Kingdom. In January 1979 the Islamic revolution in Iran toppled the shah, forcing many of his followers to leave the country, the Amanpour family among them. Her father lost everything he had owned in Iran. Amanpour later credited her desire to be a journalist to this firsthand experience.

Amanpour subsequently moved to the United States. She attended the University of Rhode Island, graduating with a degree in journalism in 1983. She went to work for an NBC affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island, but in September 1983 she was hired at the fledgling CNN as an assistant for the international news desk. By 1986 she was working at CNN’s New York City bureau as a producer-correspondent. Amanpour received her big break in 1989 when she was promoted to a post in Frankfurt, West Germany. She arrived there at an opportune time; the pro-democracy movement was sweeping eastern Europe, and Amanpour quickly became CNN’s on-the-spot reporter.

Amanpour gained distinction in Europe, but it was during the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) that she became a familiar face. She covered the conflict from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the eventual triumph of the U.S.-led coalition. After the war she reported on the Kurdish uprising in northern Iraq. In 1992 Amanpour went to Bosnia and Herzegovina to cover the outbreak of violence that she thought would become “my generation’s war.” Her reporting was credited with bringing the savage nature of that conflict to the attention of the world, although some criticized her for what they thought was her tendency to editorialize rather than report, claiming that she was clearly biased against the Serbs.

While continuing to report from the field as CNN’s chief international correspondent, Amanpour occasionally contributed (1996–2005) to the CBS newsmagazine program 60 Minutes. For CNN she produced a series of programs that delved deeper into an issue than was possible on a nightly news show. Her documentaries included Where Have All the Parents Gone? (2006), which focused on Kenyan children who had been orphaned because of AIDS; In the Footsteps of bin Laden (2006); and The War Within (2007), a report on Islamic unrest in the United Kingdom. She also presented the six-hour series God’s Warriors (2007), which dealt with the defenders of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. From 2009 to 2010 Amanpour hosted the CNN interview series Amanpour.

In 2010 Amanpour left CNN to join the news division at ABC, and she became host of ABC’s political affairs show This Week later that year. She stepped down from the program, however, in December 2011. In a special arrangement, she then resumed her role at CNN while continuing at ABC as its global affairs anchor. Amanpour returned in 2012 on the CNN International channel, and in 2017 it also began airing on the Public Broadcasting Service as Amanpour on PBS. It was an interim replacement for the Charlie Rose show—which had been abruptly canceled amid allegations of sexual misconduct by Rose—and in 2018 the time slot was given to the newly created Amanpour & Company. The hour-long interview featured Amanpour as well as various correspondents; it also aired on CNN International.

Amanpour was the recipient of numerous honours, including an Edward R. Murrow Award (2002). In 2007 she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).