The Tragedy Of Former CNN Anchor Christi Paul Is So Sad

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The following article discusses domestic abuse and suicide.

Christi Paul has a successful career, a loving husband, and three beautiful children. From the outside looking in, the former CNN anchor has the perfect life. And she agrees — but she went through a lot to get here. Paul had an idyllic childhood in rural Ohio that she wouldn’t change for anything. However, life started testing her strength shortly after. She had her first encounter with toxic men while still in school. “I dated a guy my sophomore year who had kind of a Jekyll and Hyde personality,” she said on the “Jesus Calling” podcast in 2021.

Confused by his changing personality, Paul found herself in hurtful situations. “He could be very good to me, but he cheated on me, and he could be manipulative,” she explained. The situation escalated until it turned physical. “He did slap me across the face once in the middle of the hallway at school,” she said. “I remember that humiliation, and I said I would never allow that to happen to me again.” Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

While she left her school boyfriend, Paul fell into an even worse situation just a few years later. She has risen above it and learned that the abuse she suffered doesn’t define her or make her incapable of being in a healthy relationship. Her husband, Peter Wurm, is everything she always wanted and more. Together, they’ve faced life’s adversities as a team. Paul has been through a lot, but her faith kept her from giving up time and time again.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone in one way or another, but 2020 was particularly hard for those who came face-to-face with the virus. Christi Paul’s family was unfortunately among them, as  Peter Wurm came down with COVID-19 in early July 2020. At first, they thought his case was mild. “Fortunately he’s not having serious respiratory issues but I need to stay in full time mom & wife mode to take care of the precious people who are my world,” she shared on Facebook on July 10, 2020.

But the scenario quickly changed as his symptoms worsened, and Paul had to rush him to the hospital. Wurm didn’t test negative until several weeks later. During those weeks, Paul shared snippets of information about his recovery on social media, though she didn’t reveal the severity of his illness until she resigned from CNN in June 2022. “It was really bad for about three and a half weeks, and there were moments when I thought I was going to be a single mom. Especially when I had to take him to the ER,” she said.

Wurm’s issues didn’t end when he finally tested negative in late July 2020. Months later, he was still experiencing symptoms, as he had developed long COVID. “This husband of mine, this man I adore & love beyond words, we’ve discovered, is a long-hauler. This COVID thing is real. It’s [sic] symptoms linger. They hang on with a grip that hurts,” she shared in an October 2020 Instagram post.

Before she found Paul Wurm, Christi Paul was married to fellow journalist Rob Koebel. But that marriage was anything but loving. In 2012, she detailed the emotional and often physical abuse she suffered in “Love Isn’t Supposed to Hurt: A Memoir.” Paul met Koebel at her first job in West Virginia. They continued to work together in Idaho and then Arizona, and the situation was getting progressively worse behind the scenes. The abuse had destroyed her self-esteem, reducing her to a shell of her previous self.

But she had an epiphany one day while hiding in a church parking lot. Then and there, she realized her faith was stronger than her fear. “I don’t know if it was because I finally got brutally honest with myself or because I was so desperate to feel peace again, but I know this: by the grace of God, it was the beginning of the end of that relationship,” she wrote in a CNN op-ed. She told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she worked out a plan with her therapist, who advised her to inform Koebel of her decision to leave after she had physically left.

Paul boarded a plane to Ohio and called Koebel only after she was safe with family. Since then, she has become an advocate for victims of domestic violence, discussing her own experiences to help raise awareness and combat the stigma associated with it. “We’re all walking around with scars. But we can all be healers,” she wrote in the CNN piece. 

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Christi Paul was in her third year at Ohio’s University of Toledo when her friend Melissa Herstrum was killed after being shot 14 times by a university police officer. The crime shocked Ohioans for its brutality and senselessness. “It just shook me up,” Paul told Cleveland Magazine in 2022. “I didn’t want to leave home. I didn’t want to leave my family. I was searching for security. I spent a lot of years just lost.” 

On January 27, 1992, Officer Jeffrey Hodge pulled over 19-year-old Herstrum, a nursing student, for an unspecified traffic violation, according to The Blade. Hodge, then 22, drove her to her apartment after she told him she had forgotten her ID at home. But instead of issuing a ticket or warning and letting her go, he handcuffed her and fired his gun at her head, torso, and legs. When he pleaded guilty in May 1992, he said in court he didn’t know why he killed Herstrum, Fox8 reported.

Hodge was sentenced to life in prison and denied parole in 2021. Paul never fully got over her friend’s murder. Her trauma came rushing back when it came time to see her oldest daughter off to The Ohio State University.  “You don’t recognize how that lingers,” she told Cleveland Magazine. Since Herstrum’s death, Paul has struggled to feel 100% safe anywhere, but particularly on college campuses. “I still fight that. God, please just get her home every night,” she shared. 

After graduating, Christi Paul moved to West Virginia for her first journalism job. Five months after moving away from family, a close friend back home died by suicide. This was the second time she had to grieve a loved one gone too soon. The death of her friend, referred to as P.A. in “Love Isn’t Supposed to Hurt,” heightened the feelings of insecurity that arose following Melissa Herstrum’s violent killing. It was during this vulnerable time that she met her first husband. “He seemed to be a place of comfort and security,” she told CBN.

Paul quickly became dependent on Rob Koebel for all of her emotional needs. “I had no support system,” she said. “I was vulnerable.” It took her years to come to terms with the abuse she went through, often looking back and questioning why she stayed so long. Eventually, she understood that the losses she experienced played a big role. “When they talk about abusers, it was really the perfect storm because I came into the relationship out of some really heavy emotional stuff that was going on already, and now the only person I have is him,” she said during the “Jesus Calling” interview.

Paul would later learn this wasn’t by accident. People who commit domestic violence often take advantage of their partner’s circumstances to ensure she has no one to turn to. “It’s the isolation that they talk about — abusers will try to isolate you,” she said. 

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Christi Paul quit CNN for a noble reason. After nearly losing her husband to COVID-19, she learned a lesson about her priorities. With the pandemic restrictions, Paul was isolated from her parents, which served as a brutal reminder that her days with them could be numbered. “Like many of you, I hadn’t seen my parents for a year,” she said in her resignation message. “And at some point, my husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘What are we doing? We’ve gotta get back home.'”

Just like that, she became a part of the “great resignation,” referring to the increased number of workers who quit their jobs following the pandemic. Paul had mentioned how much she missed seeing her parents a full year before she decided to move closer to them. “It’s been almost a year since I’ve hugged my mom. … I love you mom! Can’t wait to see you again!” she captioned a May 2021 Instagram post.

Paul packed her bags and moved her family back to Ohio, where she accepted a position at WKYC3. She was ready to prioritize her family over her career. “Nobody else is going to be my kids mom. And nobody else is going to be my husband’s wife or my parents’ children, and I need to be fully, fully present there,” she said. She wasn’t the only anchor to leave after the pandemic started. In 2021, Brooke Baldwin quit her CNN anchor job as well.