CNN anchor from New Jersey leaves network after a decade: ‘This is my last day’

Alisyn Camerota just became the latest anchor to leave CNN.

Camerota, a New Jersey native, has been with the cable news network for a decade.

“Before we begin this very busy news day, I would like to take a moment to share some personal news,” she told viewers during her final broadcast Sunday afternoon.

“This is my last day on air at CNN. I have had such incredible opportunities here over the past decade-plus. I interviewed presidents, heroes and extraordinary people, the kind of career highlights I had dreamed of since I was a teenager.”

Camerota, 58, grew up in Shrewsbury.

Before CNN, she spent 16 years at Fox News, where she co-hosted “America’s News Headquarters,” “Fox & Friends Weekend” and “Fox & Friends First.” Camerota was among many women at Fox News who came forward with sexual harassment allegations against disgraced Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in 2017.

On CNN, Camerota hosted “New Day,” “CNN Newsroom” with Victor Blackwell and “CNN Tonight” with Laura Coates and Jake Tapper.

“The journalists at CNN are the best in the entire news industry and it was an honor to have been their colleagues,” Camerota said in her on-air farewell. “It is also an honor to have been in your home for the past ten years and to have witnessed some of the greatest stories of our lives. I am always touched when a viewer comes to me and tells me that I helped them get through these challenging times. So I look forward to doing a lot more of this with you.”

Camerota’s novel “Amanda Wakes Up,” about a young journalist working at a cable news channel, was published in 2017.

She followed that book this year with her memoir, “Combat Love: A Story of Leaving, Longing and Searching for Home,” in which she talks about growing up on the Jersey Shore following and loving the Red Bank punk band Shrapnel . The book has been optioned for film and television.

Camerota urged viewers to follow her on Instagram and said she would post updates about where they could find her “in the very near future.”

At the end of her farewell, she thanked her CNN colleagues. One of them, Wolf Blitzer, expressed his appreciation for Camerota.

“Alisyn, I think I speak for all of our viewers here in the United States and around the world when I say we will miss you,” he said. “You are not only a good friend, but also a colleague and an outstanding journalist, and I know whatever your next challenges and adventures will be, they will be exciting and wonderful.”

In September, Camerota shared on Instagram that her husband of nearly 23 years, Tim Lewis, died of pancreatic cancer in July.

There she also published a debriefing after her official CNN farewell.

“I’m on my way to new horizons,” she said. “I just share this wisdom: New horizons are great if you’re ready for them. There were times in my life when I wasn’t ready to leave a place I loved and that was really sad and very hard. But I think I’m ready now to leave this place I loved. So I’ll get back to you very soon, I promise.”