She's the calm in the middle of one international storm after another, a profile in courage (and no-nonsense gutsiness) for millions of CNN viewers around the world. One of the most intrepid and admired women in all of news broadcasting opens up about her remarkable career, how she's managing motherhood and marriage, what it's like covering a war, and why she believes a thriving society must have a thriving press.

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I don't watch a lot of television, but when I do tune in, it's usually to CNN—my connection to the rest of the world. And no matter what time of day or night it is, I'm always hoping for a story from Christiane Amanpour. I like her style: She's confident, courageous fearless. She's a whole lotta woman. Raised in Iran, Christiane was schooled in London (to which her family fled in 1979), then studiedjournalism at the University of Rhode Island. She entered our living rooms—and our national consciousness—on CNN during the Gulf War. A few years later, it was Christiane, perhaps more than anyone else who refused to let the West ignore the atrocities in Bosnia. During nearly two decades of what she calls balls-to-the-wall reporting, she has brought clarity and context to the crises in Iraq, Darfur, the Balkans... As The New York Times once put it, "Where there's war, there's Amanpour.

I met up with Christiane at the Mark hotel in New York, where she was already packed for a trip to Dubai. Considering that she is a globe-trotting mom on the move, she was incredibly generous with her time. As she filled me in on life on the front lines, mothering while at war, and the real meaning of risk, I saw that reporting isn't a job for her, it's a mission.

Start reading Oprah's interview with Christiane Amanpour


This interview appeared in the September 2005 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

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