Sylvie Claire / February 3, 2022
The 56-year-old Jeff Zucker, who had been at the helm of CNN since 2013, said he was wrong to keep the relationship with the network's marketing director quiet.
Iconic CNN president Jeff Zucker, who symbolized the network's repositioning, particularly during the Trump presidency, announced his resignation Wednesday after the revelation of a hidden affair with a colleague.
Aged 56, Jeff Zucker, who was at the head of CNN since 2013, said he was wrong to keep quiet about this relationship with the channel's marketing director. Donald Trump, whose CNN has been a favorite target for years, welcomed the departure of a world-class scumbag. Jeff Zucker explained that he admitted the existence of the affair during a recent internal investigation unrelated to him, devoted to the journalist Chris Cuomo, recently fired. I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, with whom I have worked for over twenty years, the executive said in an internal memo published by CNN.
I recognized that this relationship had evolved over the past few years, he continued. I should have reported it when it started, but I didn't. I was wrong. As a result, I am stepping down today.
In another internal memo, marketing director Allison Gollust, whom the network said would retain her position, also expressed regret for not reporting the affair, which she said began during the pandemic, to her employer. Jeff Zucker has been separated from his wife, Caryn, since 2018.
Charismatic and voluble, Jeff Zucker has repositioned the channel in the face of its great competitor Fox News and has taken advantage of the aspiration following the entry of Donald Trump into politics. The native Floridian has a complex relationship with the real estate developer, a mixture of attraction and repulsion.
In the early 2000s, Jeff Zucker gave him a launch pad with the reality show The Apprentice when he ran NBC, but has since distanced himself from the former president.
During both of Donald Trump's campaigns as well as during his tenure, CNN portrayed itself as the factual news channel, which was often opposed to what its reporters saw as erroneous allegations or lies by the Trump team.