CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Reveals Her Ovarian Cancer Has Returned: “I Have It Again”

Vet­er­an jour­nal­ist Chris­tiane Aman­pour, 67, has shared that her ovar­i­an can­cer has returned for the third time.

Speak­ing on the Chang­ing the Ovar­i­an Can­cer Sto­ry pod­cast on Thurs­day, Oct. 23, the CNN anchor said her can­cer is “very well man­aged” thanks to ongo­ing immunother­a­py treat­ment.

“I have it again. But it’s being very well man­aged,” Aman­pour told host Han­nah Vaugh­an Jones. “I obvi­ous­ly had all of the rel­e­vant organs removed, but it came back a cou­ple times in a lymph node.”

Her doc­tor, Dr. Angela George, Clin­i­cal Direc­tor of Genomics at London’s Roy­al Mars­den Hos­pi­tal, explained that Amanpour’s con­di­tion is a rare type of ovar­i­an can­cer, rep­re­sent­ing few­er than 10% of cas­es.

Accord­ing to Aman­pour, her immunother­a­py rou­tine has been “the oppo­site of gru­el­ing” — she expe­ri­ences no side effects, takes pills dai­ly, and receives hos­pi­tal infu­sions every six weeks.

She cred­it­ed her rou­tine check-ups every three months for detect­ing the cancer’s recur­rence ear­ly, call­ing them “a superb insur­ance pol­i­cy.”

Reflect­ing emo­tion­al­ly on her expe­ri­ence, Aman­pour said she’s deeply moved by the sup­port she’s received from fam­i­ly, friends, and col­leagues.

“I nev­er actu­al­ly asked for help before,” she said. “And when I did, I got it — from every­body. It real­ly sus­tained me because it’s not just the ill­ness, it’s the state of mind.”

Aman­pour was first diag­nosed in May 2021, under­went major surgery, and com­plet­ed 18 weeks of chemother­a­py. In 2022, she spoke pub­licly to raise aware­ness about ear­ly detec­tion, call­ing ovar­i­an can­cer “the invis­i­ble killer” and urg­ing women to trust their instincts if some­thing feels wrong.

Reflect­ing on her can­cer jour­ney, Chris­tiane Aman­pour became emo­tion­al while speak­ing on the pod­cast, strug­gling to hold back tears as she described the over­whelm­ing sup­port she’s received dur­ing her treat­ment.

“I nev­er actu­al­ly asked for help before… and when I did, I got it,” she said. “From my fam­i­ly, my friends, my col­leagues, from every­body. It was touch­ing — but more than that, it was real­ly help­ful, real­ly amaz­ing.”

She shared that the encour­age­ment and dai­ly check-ins from loved ones gave her strength through the tough­est moments.

“It real­ly sus­tained me because it’s not just the ill­ness — it’s the state of mind,” Aman­pour con­tin­ued. “To have all these peo­ple who every day were ask­ing how I was, how they could help… the com­mu­ni­ty is actu­al­ly vital, and I’m just so very lucky that I had that.”

Aman­pour was first diag­nosed with ovar­i­an can­cer in May 2021, under­go­ing major surgery just ten days lat­er, fol­lowed by 18 weeks of chemother­a­py.

In a 2022 inter­view with PEOPLE, she opened up about her expe­ri­ence in hopes of rais­ing aware­ness for ear­ly detec­tion.

“Ovar­i­an can­cer is known as the invis­i­ble killer,” she said at the time. “Get all the scans that you can. We women know bet­ter what’s going on with our own bod­ies than any­body. We can trust our­selves. If there’s some­thing wrong, pur­sue it.”