'It's Hard To Move On From Something So Comfortable': Brooke Baldwin Reveals Emotional Decision Behind Leaving CNN
While Brooke Baldwin surprised everyone when she said she was leaving CNN, she’s still not sure what’s next on her agenda.
With her final show only days away, after making the announcement in February, the 41-year-old admitted that she has "moments where I'm freaked out," after spending more than a decade with the network.
"It's going to be hard to walk away. I have to walk away," she told Yahoo Entertainment. "And the main reason is — listen, it's been a total privilege... but I, in spending all this time with all these trailblazing women and these huddles, I cannot hold space with them and not be the bravest version of myself."
The anchor explained that once you get comfortable somewhere after a long period of time, it’s time for a fresh start.
"It's hard to move on from something so comfortable because it's comfortable throughout for a multitude of reasons. I've [worked] 20 years and sacrificed my social life. I was very alone for a lot of my younger years to get to this point. I could understand from the outside why it makes no sense for me to be leaving, but it just — in my gut, I just know it's right. I just have to go."
Baldwin hopes to get into storytelling, but has no solid plans. "I just know that I will find the thing that will be right for me for this next chapter of my life that will be so in alignment with where my passions are. I just want to be able to live out loud about that and some other place will be that right fit," she said.
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But true to her new book Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, she called a huddle with her girlfriends to discuss her decision. "They were obviously with me throughout all of the ups and downs and moments in my life, the latter years of my career," she said of her pals. "They fully support me."
"Huddling is when women lean on one another," Baldwin explained. "Huddling is below the surface. It's not loud. It's an idea of a quiet movement of women just committing to each other, having each other's backs to sponsoring each other at work.
"Two of these girls will come be with me in New York," Baldwin said. "I literally want to have them help walk me out of the door. I am leaning on them that much. They are coming here to walk me out of the building and to be with me as I am sure I am going to be crying. It's going to be emotional."
Baldwin slammed the culture of pitting women against each other and the idea that women who rise above are an "outlier" for "prevailing over the patriarchy."
"That is not the narrative and that is not the story based on all of these women and all of these huddles that I have interviewed for the last two years. I have learned on this book journey that successful women — and when I say successful, I mean in all slivers of one's life — successful women are not outliers. They are huddlers."
