Sara Sidner is an American journalist who currently serves as a national and international correspondent for CNN. Sidner gained international fame for her coverage of the 2011 Libyan civil war. Over the past year, Sidner has covered stories such as the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis, the spread of the coronavirus, and currently, the protests sparked by the shooting of Daunte Wright.
During the George Floyd protests, Sara trended for suggesting that the three officers present while Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck were complicit in his death. While covering the impact of coronavirus in South Los Angeles, Sara broke down on camera as she reported on the staggering death toll in the area.
Sara is trending again following her impromptu interview with a protestor urging the press to stop their biased coverage of the Daunte Wright protests. Read on the find out more about her husband and her career.
Sara made wedding plans with her husband as she covered the Libyan civil war
We can confirm that Sara Sidner is married, but we don’t know the identity of her husband or when she got married. She prefers to keep that part of her life secret.
However, we know that she made some of her wedding plans as she covered the 2011 Libyan civil war. “When I finally said yes to the wonderful man in my life, I ended up making wedding plans on a satellite phone on the middle of Libya as rockets were flying through the night air overhead,” she told TVNewser.
She explained that her husband worried that she wouldn’t make it out of the conflict alive. “He was not kidding and I was actually worried that I might not make it,” Sara added.
Sara’s profession rarely allows her to remain in one location for an extended period. She admits that she enjoys traveling, exploring new locations, and learning about diverse cultures, but the profession limits the amount of time she spends with family. She explained:
“I adore travelling. I enjoy learning about other cultures and habits and traditions almost more than anything else. I have had the best education in the world from the people who populate it. The moving around isn’t the hard part. The not-having-a-life-other-than-work is the challenge. It is extremely hard on the family.”
Sara has covered plenty of suffering, but her heart couldn’t bear the sorrow she saw in hospitals in downtown LA in early January 2021
When the coronavirus started, Sara’s assignment concerned the racial divide in America. Eventually, she landed in Seattle and covered the precarious situation in a nursing home in Seattle. She told Glamour that it was the first time in her career that she felt fear while reporting on a dangerous situation. “I felt real fear because we still didn’t know how the virus was spread,” she said.
As the year rolled on and the virus spread like wildfire across America, Sara came into contact with people affected by it more regularly. Some of her family members contracted the disease and she spent time with doctors, nurses, and the loved ones of people sick with the condition. All the emotion she perceived came to the fore when she broke down on camera. She told Glamour:
“When I broke down in tears, it was obvious I had reached a limit that I hadn’t realized I had. I couldn’t fake it or pretend it was fine. It all came to a head as I watched the crisis unfold in the Capitol at the same time as I was watching the crisis unfold with this new coronavirus spike. I just got so upset hearing people react with, ‘I had no idea this was possible.’”
Sara received an outpouring of support from social media and from the loved ones in her life. “There was just so much kindness,” she said. “This was a moment to remind me that I am not a robot.” The breakdown reminded her that she was human and confirmed her fear about the state of things in her country.
Throughout the episode and its aftermath, Sara made it her mission to learn how to conquer fear. She explained:
“I have been coming back a lot to the idea of fear and how it motivates people and divides people. Even folks that don’t wear a mask, that’s about fear. They’re afraid to admit there’s something out there that might take their loves and that no one can control. I think one of the things that 2021 is going to be about is conquering fear. So that’s what I’m trying to do too.”
Sara stated that she understands the man who asked the media to halt their coverage of the Daunte Wright protests
“Y’all be twisting up the story,” an unidentified man in a camouflage jacket told Sara as she covered the Daunte Wright protests. The man accused Sidner and the rest of the media of misrepresenting the protests. “It’s all the press and all the extra shit y’all do, makes this worse,” he said. The man accused the press of making people ‘look all crazier than what the fuck they are.’
The media has been accused of overplaying the destruction in clashes between protestors and police, and those accusations have come up again following the recent protests. The man’s anger at the media was for that reason. “Get away from here,” he insisted.
Sara told The Washington Post that she understood the man’s assertions and was happy to talk with the man on-air. “If somebody is upset, it’s part of the story and sometimes they go after the media and they have their opinion,” said Sara.
However, Sidner refuted the man’s allegation that she is new to the Minneapolis area. She asserts that she’s spent plenty of time in the community; Sara covered the aftermath of the death of Jamar Clark, an unarmed Black man shot by police in 2015, and stayed in Minneapolis for several weeks after Prince died. She also tweeted:
“I’m not going anywhere. I love Minneapolis, it’s surrounding suburbs, including #BrooklynCenter, and its people. I get that people are mad. It’s normal. I take no offense. Emotions are understandably high after the killing of #DanteWright.”