CNN founder Ted Turner in rehab facility after recent hospitalization with pneumonia

Caption

Ted Turner (right) speaks with anchors before a CNN newscast during the 1980s.

Credit: Courtesy of CNN / GPB File

Ted Turner, the entrepreneur who founded CNN, America's first 24-hour cable news network in 1980, is recuperating from a recent illness, a family spokesperson told GPB in a statement.

“After a recent hospitalization with a mild case of pneumonia, 86-year-old media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner is recuperating at a rehab facility and expects a full recovery," the statement read. "While he was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia in 2018 and despite the health challenges it presents, Ted continues to remain resilient and engaged in his professional and personal endeavors.”

Turner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but moved to Atlanta in the early 1960s to take over his father's billboard advertising business. He went on to create Turner Broadcasting System, with its headquarters in Midtown Atlanta.

He is the subject of a 2024 documentary Call Me Ted, an autobiographical recounting of his career detailing how he built a media empire and became a leading conservationist and philanthropist whose success helped Atlanta gain recognition as an international city.

Turner has not made recent public appearances but appeared via Zoom at the documentary's premiere party in Atlanta on Nov. 12, 2024.