Ted Turner, the American media entrepreneur who founded the Cable News Network (CNN) and pioneered 24-hour cable news, died on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Turner Enterprises confirmed he passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, after a prolonged battle with Lewy body dementia, a diagnosis he disclosed publicly in 2018.
Mr. Turner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 19, 1938. His father, who ran a billboard advertising business, died by suicide in 1963, leaving the 24-year-old Turner in charge of the company. He used that base to build a media operation that would change the structure of global broadcasting. In 1970, he purchased a failing Atlanta UHF television station. By 1976, he had converted it into TBS, the first satellite-delivered cable superstation in the United States, carried into millions of homes nationwide.
On June 1, 1980, he launched CNN from Atlanta; the world’s first 24-hour all-news cable channel. The concept was widely doubted at the time. Mr. Turner pressed ahead. CNN grew into a global news network available to more than two billion people across over 200 countries and territories. It changed the pace and expectations of news coverage in ways that are still felt today. Mr. Turner regarded it as the greatest achievement of his life.
He expanded Turner Broadcasting System to include TNT and Cartoon Network, and at various points owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball franchise. In 1996, he sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner in a deal worth approximately US$7.3 billion. The subsequent AOL–Time Warner merger in 2001 proved costly. The CNN founder later said he had approved it against his better judgement. The stock collapse that followed erased close to 80 percent of his net worth, reducing a fortune once valued near US$10 billion to roughly US$2 billion.
Outside the media, Mr. Turner was active in philanthropy and conservation. In 1997, he donated US$1 billion to the United Nations, establishing the United Nations Foundation to channel private support toward multilateral institutions. It was among the largest single private donations recorded at the time. In 2001, alongside former US Senator Sam Nunn, he co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-partisan body focused on reducing global dependence on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
Mr. Turner became one of the largest private landowners in the United States, controlling nearly two million acres across six states at his peak. He maintained the world’s largest private bison herd and in 2002 launched Ted’s Montana Grill, a restaurant chain built around bison meat, partly to create a commercial market that would support conservation. In 1990, he produced Captain Planet and the Planeteers, an animated television series aimed at educating children on environmental issues.
He was married three times. His marriage to actress and activist Jane Fonda, which ran from 1991 to 2001, was his most public. His family confirmed the two remained friends until his death. Turner is survived by five children: Laura Turner Seydel, Robert Edward ‘Teddy’ Turner IV, Rhett Turner, Beau Turner, and Jennie Turner Garlington. A private funeral service is planned. A public memorial will be held at a later date.
