Sara Sidner returns to CNN after breast reconstruction surgery

After documenting her diagnosis and double mastectomy, CNN’s Sara Sidner continues to share her journey openly.

Sara Sidner is back in her chair at CNN.

On Monday, September 22, the 53-year-old news anchor officially returned as cohost of “CNN News Central” after two months away for breast reconstruction surgery.

“Monday was first day back to work after weeks recovery from reconstructive surgery,” she wrote in the caption of a recent Instagram post that included a clip from her broadcast. “I missed working. I know that sounds weird. I think it’s the people I missed most. They can not be replaced. We are all just trying to figure out together.”

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Sidner, a veteran journalist and anchor who announced in 2023 that she had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, has been unflinching in documenting every part of her journey. Following a double mastectomy earlier this year, her recent reconstruction surgery marked the next step in a grueling fight. From the ups to the downs, she has shared it all openly with viewers and followers, reflecting on how the experience has reshaped her perspective on life.

Speaking to People in an interview released Wednesday, October 1—the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month—Sidner said, “It sounds wrong, but I thank cancer because it changed me.”

In a video update for CNN months after her diagnosis, the news anchor documented her chemotherapy journey and revealed she had been forced to embrace self-care like never before.

“Now I fight to take care of myself,” she told People, admitting that prioritizing self-care had often fallen by the wayside in the past.

That self-care includes confronting what she described as “the long tail of cancer.” 

In a candid Instagram video days before her return to CNN, Sidner explained how continued treatments, hormone suppression, and other medical interventions remain part of her daily reality. Showing off her short “but thick” new bob, she confessed, “I didn’t recognize the girl in the mirror.”

Still, she has leaned on a new outlook to push through, choosing to reframe her diagnosis with a sense of gratitude. 

“I have to look at this as cancer gave me more than it took away,” she told People. “Because I am a different person and understand the preciousness of this life in a way I could never have understood before diagnosis.”