A longtime voice on CNN announced her sudden departure during a live broadcast.
Veteran anchor Brooke Baldwin is calling quits after a 13-year career with the network — first arriving as a freelancer before transitioning into an anchor role as part of CNN’s core lineup.
Baldwin made the surprise announcement during her 3 p.m. show, “CNN Newsroom.”
“There is just more I need to do outside these walls,” she said.
While she doesn’t have another job lined up, she insists that she’s optimistic about what’s in store for her.
“This next life chapter will focus on what I love the most about my work: amplifying the lives of extraordinary Americans and putting my passion for storytelling to good use,” she said.
Baldwin had been diagnosed with COVID-19, documenting her grueling experience with the virus after claiming she felt so bad that her “body gave her the middle finger.”
“It took a full two-week beating on my body,” she wrote in April 2020, shortly after the pandemic had reached America.
According to her own account, she will be departing the network in April.
She took the time to express thanks to her colleagues:
“For a decade I’ve never taken for granted the enormous responsibility and privilege I’ve had to work with some of the most talented producers and photojournalists out there as we covered our era’s most urgent and important stories,” Baldwin said.
Following the election cycle and the departure of former President Donald Trump, many cable news networks are experiencing tremendous staff shakeups — including CNN.
You can watch the segment below:
Brooke Baldwin gets emotional as she announces that she'll be leaving CNN after a decade in April.
"I’m feeling very vulnerable, but what is it Renee Brown says? Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change, and I am so excited about what is to come." pic.twitter.com/0nKLWwNXZr
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 16, 2021
The Associated Press contributed to this article