CNN founder Ted Turner dies at 87

The founder of news network CNN, Ted Turner, has been confirmed dead at the age of 87.

Turner, the brash sportsman and entrepreneur whose ambition and instincts led to a media empire that included CNN, died on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

Turner Enterprises confirmed his death on Wednesday, without stating details on the cause of the entrepreneur’s demise.

Turner had, in September 2018, revealed that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.

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He became a billionaire by taking over his father’s billboard business, buying a television station in the 70s and parlaying that into what would become a vast, ground-breaking television group.

Turner became one of the most powerful figures in United States media and entertainment, with his networks specialising in news, sports, reruns, and old movies.

He added the MGM/UA movie studio to his portfolio before making an even bigger move – merging his Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996.

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Turner headed the new company’s cable networks division and was its leading shareholder, but he had trouble fitting into a corporate system after decades of free-wheeling as his own boss. He eventually lost control of his networks.

He made a name for himself with spectacular business deals, his ownership of professional sports clubs, his marriage to actress Jane Fonda, his leadership of a competitive yachting team, and his devotion to charitable and environmental causes.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November 1938, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III went to a military boarding school in Tennessee and then attended Brown University, but was expelled before graduating.

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Turner took over a faltering family advertising business after his father, despondent over financial problems, committed suicide.