Tragic Details About CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar has been a staple of the cable news network for quite some time. These days, most viewers are likely to know Keilar as the co-host of "CNN News Central," or for her time anchoring shows like "CNN Right Now" or "New Day." However, her tenure with CNN actually dates all the way back to 2006, and her journalism career in general even further than that. Since that time, she's racked up some respectable accolades, including a National Press Foundation Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for her work covering the 2008 Wall Street bailout. But for all her success, Keilar's journey hasn't been without hardship.

It's no secret that many of CNN's on-screen personalities have faced their share of personal tragedy, from Pamela Brown, to Erin Burnett, to Jake Tapper. Keilar is no exception. She's spent years dealing with a painful medical disorder, lost her mother while in the middle of covering the 2016 election cycle, and has often lived in constant fear for her military husband's safety. That said, Keilar also seems to know as well as anyone that good often goes hand-in-hand with the bad. After all, her beautiful wedding took place the very same year as her mother's death. "2016 brought me my greatest personal loss when my mom died suddenly in May. So it was wonderful — and very emotional — to cap 2016 with the immeasurable gain of marrying this man," Keilar wrote of the experience on Instagram. While it was a beautiful moment, there have been plenty of tragic ones, too.

As she told The Hill in 2023, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic medical condition that causes widespread pain, when she was around 12 or 13 years old. "I've learned to live with chronic pain because I've had it almost my entire life ... It affects me a lot, but I've also learned how to manage it and I've also learned like every bad thing that can happen to you also teaches you a lot of positive things," she said.

Keilar actually went into detail about the early years of her diagnosis in a 2021 CNN presentation. The anchor said she was a fairly active child with a particular affinity for golf before the condition began causing her almost constant pain, making it difficult for her to even go to school. She also recalled enduring about a year's worth of doctor visits, with fibromyalgia only being named as the culprit after everything else had been ruled out. However, with the diagnosis came even more time spent in the hospital, with little progress towards feeling better being made. Keilar noted that she got tired of it all, and wanted to go back to golfing. So, she decided to simply play through the pain. This, combined with finally finding the right meds for her fibromyalgia, helped Keilar take back control over her life. "And that's incredibly empowering — to be 13, 14, 15, and to realize, 'Actually, these are the things that work for me," she said.

The months leading up to a presidential election are often some of the busiest and most hectic for American journalists, with the 2016 edition between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton being particularly stressful for many. However, that year took an especially hard toll on CNN's Brianna Keilar, as her mother unexpectedly passed away in the midst of primary season after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Keilar penned a CNN piece recounting the harrowing experience in October 2016, shortly before election day and about five months after her mother's death. According to the anchor, when she got the call her mother was in the hospital, doctors initially believed she was simply suffering from an infection. But the true cause of her failing health soon made itself apparent. To make matters even more heartbreaking, Keilar's mother died just one day after Keilar got word of the cancer diagnosis.

"As we drive to the airport I google acute leukemia. There are two major kinds and her chances of surviving either are not good. I steel myself for her long cancer battle," Keilar recalled in her article. "I thought the hardest thing I would deal with in 2016 was covering the election. It was a reasonable assumption," she continued, adding, "I have no idea that by noon tomorrow she will be gone." All the while, election season was still in full swing, and Keilar had to make the necessary arrangements for her mother while continuing to follow the campaign trail.

As previously mentioned, while Brianna Keilar had to face the tragedy of her mother's sudden passing during the first half 2016, that year at least ended on a more positive note for the CNN anchor. It was in December 2016 that Keilar wed Fernando Lujan, who was an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces Officer at the time. This actually marked the beginning of Keilar's second marriage, as she had previously been married to a man named Dave French. However, though very much in love, Keilar very quickly became aware of some of the stressful realities of being a military spouse after she and Lujan tied the knot.

Speaking with The Spouse Angle in 2024, Keilar recalled one particular day in 2017 when she was at work, watching a White House press briefing regarding the deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Niger. "We were live with him discussing what it was to lose a service member and the actual physical process of the body's transport back to the U.S. through Germany, and I just lost it. All I could think of was that being my husband, you know?" she said, adding, "I managed to compose myself in time to be on air, but I know that I experienced that story so much differently than non-military connected people." Lujan eventually retired from active service after 25 years, and began teaching politics at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 2023.