Clarissa Ward is a British-American television journalist who is currently chief international correspondent for CNN. She has spent nearly two decades reporting from the front lines around the world, including Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yemen. She is known for her fearless reporting and her commitment to telling the stories of the people who are most affected by conflict.
Before joining CNN, she worked as a news reporter for CBS News in London and ABC News in Moscow. Clarissa Ward’s award-winning reporting on international conflicts spans 15 years. She won Emmys for Outstanding Investigative Reporting in a Newscast and Outstanding Breaking News Coverage in 2020. On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist, her latest book, chronicles her career as a world-renowned conflict reporter and her testimony on the forcible reshaping of the globe close-up. With her great sensitivity, Ward finds a way to convey even the most difficult stories.
Early life
Ward turns 40 in 2020, having been born on January 30, 1980, in New York City, USA. Clarissa, an American reporter, is of Caucasian and White ethnicity. Ward’s ancestors are from both London and New York. Rodney Ward and Donna Ward are her parents. She has yet to release the rest of her childhood details, as well as information about her siblings, to the public. She holds an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College and a graduate degree from Yale University.
Clarissa Ward career
Ward began her job at Fox News in 2003 as an assistant night writer. Ward worked as a contract editor for Fox News in New York City from 2004-2005. She worked on the international editorial board, directing coverage of stories such as Saddam Hussein’s capture, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the deaths of Yasir Arafat and Pope John Paul II. Ward worked as a field producer for Fox News in 2006. She covered the Israel-Lebanese war, the arrest of Gilad Shalit and Israeli military action in Gaza, the trial of Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi constitutional referendum in 2005. Ward worked as an ABC news correspondent in Moscow from October 2007 to October 2010. She reported across all ABC News programs and platforms from Russia, including World News with Charles Gibson, Nightline, and Good Morning America, as well as ABC News Radio and ABC Breaking News.
During his assignment in Russia, Ward covered the Russian presidential election. She was in Georgia at the time of the Russian invasion of the country. Ward was based in Beirut and was a Fox News reporter prior to October 2007. She covered Saddam Hussein’s assassination, the 2007 Iraq war troop deployment, the protests at the Arab University of Beirut, and the 2007 Bikfaya explosions. General David Petraeus, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud were among the people she interviewed. She also spent time in Iraq, particularly in Baqubah, alongside US troops.
foreign journalism
Ward’s CBS career began in October 2011 as a foreign news correspondent for the network. As of January 2014, she worked as a fill-in host on CBS This Morning and was a contributor for 60 Minutes. Ward and her colleagues faced sniper fire and airstrikes in their first 60-minute investigation in 2012 in Aleppo, Syria, to produce one of the first reports examining the spread of Islamic extremism within the opposition. Ward covered the Egyptian uprising in July 2013, filming from the same location where CBS correspondent Lara Logan was sexually assaulted a few years earlier.
She covered the Syrian uprising, Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng’s stay at the US Embassy in Beijing and related US-China negotiations, and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution all platforms of the network report. She will continue to work in London. Based on her more than 10 years of experience as a war correspondent, she spoke on August 8, 2016, at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the situation in civil war-torn Aleppo. Ward was named CNN’s principal foreign reporter in July 2018, succeeding Christiane Amanpour. She was one of the first Western journalists to cover life in Taliban-controlled districts of Afghanistan in 2019.
Fearless Journalism
Ward and her team were reportedly under surveillance in the Central African Republic in May 2019, information released in August 2020 showed. She revealed how members of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stalked Alexei Navalny for years, including shortly before his August 2020 poisoning, in a joint investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat in collaboration with CNN and Der Spiegel in December 2020. Local media criticized Ward’s reporting in Myanmar in 2021, calling it “parachute journalism” that “serves no other purpose than chasing better ratings” and putting the lives and families of 11 of her interviewees at risk. Ward covered the August 2021 Taliban rise in Afghanistan, including interviews with Taliban leaders and people on the frontlines.
Clarissa Ward biography | |
|---|---|
| Real name | Clarissa Ward |
| date of birth | January 31, 1980 |
| Age (as of 2023) | 43 years |
| place of birth | New York, New York, United States |
| nationality | American |
| job | journalist |
| religion | Christianity |
| sun sign | Aquarius |
Physical Statistics | |
| height | in feet inches – 5′ 11” – in centimeters – 180cm |
| Weight | in kilograms – 63kg – in pounds – 138 pounds |
| body measurements | 35-24-35 |
| bra size | 32A |
| waist size | 24 inches |
| hip size | 35 inches |
| shoe size | 8 (USA) |
| Hair color | Blond |
| eye color | blue |
| body type | Slim |
Clarissa Ward family | |
| father | Rodney Ward |
| mother | Donna Ward |
| sister | Not known |
| Brothers | Not known |
Qualification/Education | |
| school | Not known |
| University | Yale University |
relationship status | |
| marital status | Married |
| affair | no |
| Who is Clarissa Ward’s husband? | Philip of Bernstorf |
| children | Ezra Albrecht Nikolas Nour |
Personal life
Ward married German Earl Philipp von Bernstorff at London’s Chelsea Old Town Hall in November 2016, whom she met at a dinner party in Moscow in 2007. Ezra Albrecht Nikolas Nour, their only child, was born to them.
Clarissa Ward net worth
CNN News Anchor salaries average between $33,774 and $112,519 per year. As of 2021, her net worth is estimated to be between $1 million and $5 million.
Facts About Clarissa Ward
- Ward offers a unique perspective on female strength, bravery, and fear in war zones.
- Ward, who speaks seven languages and has worked in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow.
- She was honored for her work in the investigation into Jamal Khashoggi’s death. She has won many Peabody and Murrow awards as CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, reporting for Fox, CBS, and ABC.
- Ward has been recognized with seven Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards for Distinguished Journalism, honors from the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association, and the 2016 David Kaplan Award from Overseas Press Club and the International Center for Journalists’ Excellence in International Reporting Award.