Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on May 6, 2026, 4:27 PM

A trailblazer has left the media world. As per a statement from Turner Enterprises, CNN founder Ted Turner passed away on May 6. He was eighty-seven.

“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgement,” Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, stated in a statement. “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”

Laura Turner Seydel, Teddy Turner, Rhett Turner, Beau Turner, and Jennie Turner Garlington are Turner's five surviving children.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Turner revealed in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a condition in which protein deposits known as Lewy bodies form in brain nerve cells, impairing thinking, memory, and mobility.

"It's a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's. It's similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer's is fatal," at that point, Turner informed CBS News. "Thank goodness I don't have that.”

Turner, who was previously married to Julia Gale Nye, Jane Fonda, and Jane Shirley Smith, paused before continuing, saying that he possesses “dementia. I can't remember what my disease is."

Regarding his symptoms, he revealed that he was experiencing being "tired, exhausted. That's the main symptoms and forgetfulness."

With his creation of the superstation in 1975, Turner broke through the broadcast glass ceiling by using satellite technology to broadcast what would eventually become the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) far beyond local areas.

Prior selling it to Time Warner in 1996, he established CNN five years later, creating the first 24-hour news network and transforming television news.

“I’m like the bear that went over the mountain to see what he could see,” in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1994, he stated. “One thing opened up, then another, and I kept moving on."

Turner was a proud philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation in 1998 in addition to his business endeavors. In addition, he was a conservationist and anti-nuclear crusader who rose to prominence as one of America's leading landowners.

He started the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP) with his ex-wife Fonda.

She said at the organization's November dinner that it "never would have happened if it wasn't for Ted."

"It was a very challenging time in Georgia,” the Oscar winner informed the audience. “Had I not been with Ted, this was something, had he not stood by me with his love and support, we never would have survived.”

She went on, becoming more emotional, "Ted’s not here, but he is here in my heart, and I know he is here in a lot of our hearts."