CNN host Christi Paul announced on air on Sunday that she has quit the network and will be moving to her home state Ohio to take on a new role and spend more time with her family.
Paul was the host of CNN’s weekend show New Day Weekend, which she joined in 2014. She has been with the CNN and HLN network for nearly two decades.
“I love these people, I love this place, I am so grateful, and I am so tired,” she said to her co-anchor Boris Sanchez on Sunday. “I’m so exhausted. I just could just not be who I need to be for my family. I’m tired of being tired.”
Paul said that her decision to move away from the network was taken in January and dictated by the need to be more present for her children. She said that it was during the pandemic in 2020, when her husband contracted Covid-19, that they realised it was necessary to be near their families in Ohio.
“I just could not be who I needed to be for my family, is what it came down to,” she said.
“It’s important work, but at the end of the day, somebody’s going to sit in this seat and I’m going to leave and the show will go on, as it should. Nobody else is going to be my kids’ mom.”
As Paul signed off for the last time on the show, she also left a message for her CNN colleagues.
“I know that things are so divisive right now,” she said.
“The people in these buildings – in DC, in New York, here in Atlanta, all over the world – these are some of the smartest, kindest, most thoughtful, most talented people on the planet, and I am so grateful to learn from you and know you… This has been the ride of my life, and I wish all of you the best.”
The show played a reel of her work with the network over the years, which included her coverage of the 2014 Malaysian Airlines crash, the Orlando shooting, Hurricane Harvey and the pandemic, reported The Wrap.
Later in a tweet, Paul thanked her viewers and coworkers for their support for the last nine years.
