Christiane Amanpour is, to put it simply, one of the most respected journalists today, and she has been a part of CNN for almost 30 years. More recently, in a unique arrangement between the two big news channels, she has also been a part of ABC News. In her distinguished career spanning more than three decades, she has won almost every award that a journalist could win, including nine Emmys, several Peabodys, an Edward R. Murrow Award and recognition from the Library of American Broadcasting. But there is much more to be said about this woman, with her short black hair and refreshingly warm smile, than can ever be quantified by her many awards and accolades.
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Born to an Iranian, Muslim father and a British, Christian mother, Amanpour spent her childhood in Iran, where she completed the elementary education, to later move to England when she was 11, after the start of the Iran-Iraq war. She attended Holy Cross Convent, an all-girls school in Buckinghamshire, and moved to New Hall School in Chelmsford when she was 16. Later, she moved to America to attend the University of Rhode Island where she studied journalism. She was hired by CNN after she graduated from the university summa cum laude, and has had no reason to look back since then. Aside from her considerable professional achievements, she has also amassed significant wealth as a journalist, with her net worth coming to 12.5 million dollars.
Amanpour is married to James Philip Rubin (known to his friends and family as Jamie), who has had a career graph to rival that of his wife. Jamie Rubin is a former diplomat and journalist, and was Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and spokesman under President Clinton. He has also served in various other capacities during the presidency of Clinton, and he has later served as an informal adviser to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and to President Barack Obama.
Amanpour and Rubin had known each other, since 1993. Amanpour was reporting from Kiseljak, a city not far from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, since December 1992, and the actual bonding happened on a work-related trip to a Balkans devastated by war, in May 1997, where Ms. Amanpour was still on assignment and Mr. Rubin was traveling with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Although those were hardly the circumstances for love to bloom, bloom it did, and the two have been smitten with each other ever since. The trip was followed by a whirlwind romance that resulted in an engagement in January 1998, with Rubin proposing on a beach in Tobago.
The marriage took place in August 1998, at the Church of Santo Stefano in Bracciano, Italy, where a Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Ambrose O'Farrell, pronounced them husband and wife. Later in the day, Rabbi Guy D. Hall performed a Jewish ceremony at Castello Orsini-Odescalchi. The groom was 38 at the time of the wedding, while the bride – who kept her name – was 40 (yes, it is one of those ‘older woman’ stories, even if, in this case, the difference between the couple it’s just 2 years). The pair has been together for more than a decade now, and their son, Darius Rubin, was born in 2000.
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Of course, it has been in no way easy for either of them, what with their high-profile jobs and extremely busy schedules. Before the birth of their son, they saw each other infrequently. There have also been multiple accusations against Amanpour for being biased towards US policies given her husband’s previous jobs. The couple has been criticized because many thought that their relationship might have generated some kind of “conflict of interest” because of their jobs. But, in their own ways, they have always been crazy about each other – according to Amanpour herself – and somehow, they have made it all work.
Amanpour has always been very uncomfortable talking about her personal life, she’s always been very reserved, and she never considered herself a celebrity, whose life tends to become public. Nothing much is known about the inner workings of the Amanpour-Rubin marriage except that there has been no evidence of marital discord, or extramarital affairs. Even her husband has always done whatever he could to keep the private and public life separated. During an interview a few days after the announcement of their engagement, James Rubin said "I don't want to turn the best thing that's ever happened to me into the subject of somebody else's amusement. I don't want people to get the impression that if they just call me up, I'm going to tell them stuff about her and me.”
Equally futile would be a search for information regarding the personal lives of Amanpour, before James Rubin walked into her life. However, we do know that this is her first marriage, and that she has never been divorced.
Having previously lived in London, they moved back to New York City in 2010, where they rented an apartment in Manhattan's Upper West Side. In March 2010, after 27 years, Amanpour announced her departure from CNN to ABC News, where she became the anchor of “This Week”, staying with the program for more than a year. But in May 2013, Rubin announced that the family would return to London to work on several projects, and in October of the same year, Amanpour stated that she and her husband would be relocating to London permanently.
Amanpour’s show at CNN was moved to CNN International London, and is now currently being produced and broadcast always from London, while Rubin was offered a post at Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute. Along with her coverage of key international events, Christiane Amanpour has interviewed many of the world's top leaders, including Britain's prime minister Tony Blair and France's prime minister Jacques Chirac after the attacks of September 11. She also obtained the first interview with King Abdullah of Jordan and interviewed other Middle Eastern heads of state, including Mohammad Khatami and Hosni Mubarak.
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2020
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