They say never meet your heroes because you’ll be let down, but this past month I met one of my heroes, and she was not a let down …in fact, she was wonderful!
When I got my first job at Channel 4 in the late 90s as a presenter, I would end up in hotel rooms by myself all over the world, and similarly my next job as an MTV presenter/ producer /and director saw me in hotel rooms across different continents, and each time I would be in a hotel room looking for the English-speaking channel I would land on CNN where Christiane Amanpour would be holding court speaking to and holding world leaders to account- and mesmerizing me with her authority, slickness, grace and style.
Anyone who’s ever travels a lot for work knows who this woman is and adores her!
(She didn’t know it but she was like my traveling buddy bestie across the globe)…I did tell her that as I fan-girled her.
Seeing a fellow Persian woman on a global TV channel ,doing what she did, speaking to everyone from global leaders to movie stars and more, made me feel seen, and made me acknowledge that there were role models out there for me, who belonged in the TV industry, and she STILL continues doing an incredible job killing it on global telly today!
One of her slogans is ” I insist on being truthful, not neutral”, …. that really resonated with me. She has won multiple global awards – and every single one so well deserved! The page below is just one of MANY PAGES!
I was lucky enough to be invited over to NAVROZE lunch at a friend’s home last month and……. Christiane was at the lunch!…. and she was as warm, kind, curious, and even more wonderful than I could have hoped that she would be in real life.
Thank you so much Ben De Pear and Leila for inviting me and Shappi Khorsandi to yours…. we had so much fun!
Amazing company, delicious food, fun conversation, a beautiful family, the cutest dog, a beautiful afternoon….
