New Delhi: Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, began her global affairs programme ‘Amanpour’ Monday night with a ‘breaking news story’ of a very personal nature.
The 63-year-old journalist announced she was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer and had been diagnosed a month ago. She had been off air since her diagnosis for about four weeks.
She also took to Twitter to share her announcement, which has already been retweeted more than 11,000 times and has garnered 2.6 million views.
Some personal news from me: pic.twitter.com/D5noRnfXfA
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) June 14, 2021
“Like millions of women around the world, I have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I’ve had a successful major surgery to remove it, and am now undergoing several months of chemotherapy, for the very best long term prognosis,” she said in her programme.
Amanpour anchored this broadcast from London, where she was born, and also thanked the country and its medical services: “I feel fortunate to have health insurance through work and incredible doctors who are treating me in a country underpinned by, of course, the brilliant NHS (national health services),”
The journalist also said that she was making this public announcement in the interest of transparency and as a “shout-out” for early diagnosis. She also urged women to listen to their bodies and get regular screenings and scans so their “legitimate medical concerns are not dismissed or diminished”.
In a report published after Amanpour’s announcement, CNN said that the journalist will still anchor her show Monday to Wednesday.
Ovarian cancer is one of the most common and deadliest cancers in women. According to American Cancer Society, 1 in 78 women run the risk of developing it in their lifetime. There are no reliable screening tests for ovarian cancer available.
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Her career
Amanpour is a veteran war correspondent and her career in journalism has spanned four decades, in which she has interviewed many world leaders.
She is a child of conflict herself and was forced to move out of Tehran during the 1979 Iranian revolution, with just a few belongings. Her father is Iranian while Amanpour’s mother is of English descent.
Her coverage of Iran also helped CNN win the first duPont-Columbia award — one of the highest honours in American journalism.
She joined CNN in 1983 as an entry-level assistant on its international assignment desk at Atlanta, USA. In less than 10 years, she became the channel’s chief international correspondent by 1992.
In 1989 she was assigned to Frankfurt, Germany, and reported on the rise of democracy in Eastern Europe, and the fall of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1990s, she covered the Bosnian war, the genocide in Rwanda and parts of Serbian war. She also attracted widespread attention for her coverage of the Persian Gulf War.
Later, she also covered the Arab Spring, where she interviewed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, which was his last interview before his capture and execution.
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