Viewers of CNN Newsroom will notice that it looks a lot different in the coming months, as co-anchor Poppy Harlow takes a leave of absence.
“Starting next week, I will be taking a break from being with all of you every morning on this show, so that I can go back to school,” Harlow said at the end of Tuesday’s show. “Yes, school. I’m gonna study law for a master’s degree, and I can tell you, I never thought I’d be back here going to school at nearly 40 years old. But it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and, if this year and a half has taught me anything, it is why not try?”
Poppy Harlow is headed to law school. (Photo: CNN)
Harlow has enrolled in a two-semester program for a Master of Studies in Law degree at Yale Law School, according to CNN. The university describes the program as one fit for “mid-career journalists seeking an intensive immersion in legal thinking so that they are better able to educate their audiences upon their return to journalism.”
The 39-year-old mother of two recalled that her late father, an intellectual property litigator who died when she was 15, gave her her earliest legal lessons when she was a child visiting him at his office. She later graduated from Columbia University, where she studied political science. At CNN, which Harlow joined in 2008, her favorite part of the job has been covering legal and constitutional issues, she said.
Covering the death of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September inspired her to finally take the leap.
“Something I learned interviewing [Justice Ginsburg] is that you can’t have it all at once, but you can at different times. She also said, if you have a caring partner, you help that other person when they need it,” said Harlow, who married Sinisa Babcic in 2012. “I have that partner: my husband, who’s about to take on a lot while I try this, and my bosses, the rare kind, who make the impossible possible.”
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She also thanked the crew.
During her studies, Harlow’s co-anchor Jim Sciutto and some guests will sit at the news desk.
Harlow promised to return to TV “basically every holiday imaginable.” That’s when she won’t be in class.
In addition, she’ll work with her producer, Nora Neus, on an unnamed project for CNN’s streaming service, CNN+, which is set to launch in early 2022.
Harlow told CNN that she’s anxious about her decision, but she has high hopes.
“I’m someone who’s not taken a lot of risks, who’s been scared of things,” she said. “But I’m just going to try.”
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