The Tragic Loss That Shaped CNN Anchor Zain Asher's Life

When news anchor Zain Asher co-hosts "One World" on CNN International, her confidence and professionalism take center stage. Her career includes a 12-year run at the network, and a memoir published in 2022. But behind her accomplishments is a tragic loss that helped shape her life into what it is today.

Asher wrote about that loss in "Where the Children Take Us," her aforementioned memoir that revealed tragic details from her childhood. The book largely focused on her mother, Obiajulu Ejiofor, who left her native Nigeria with her husband Arinze to pursue a better life in England. But while that life was full of promise, any hope for the future was forever changed on September 3, 1988. Asher was 5 years old when her mother received a call that her husband and son, who were visiting family in Nigeria at the time, were in a car accident.

"The voice on the other end of the line just basically said, you know, your husband and your son have been involved in a car crash," Asher recalled in 2015 (via TEDx). "One of them is dead and we don't know which one." The car carrying Asher's father and brother also included three other people, all of whom perished as well. Obiajulu, who was pregnant at the time, was told it was her husband that died, leaving her son, Chiwetel Ejiofor, as the accident's lone survivor. The news of Arinze's death was life-changing for Asher's mother, who had to raise their children alone. "On the one hand, yes, her son has been spared," Asher told NPR in 2022. "But on the other hand, she's now having to plan a funeral for the love of her life."

But Obiajulu Ejiofor pressed on, and she took steps to give Asher every opportunity for success in life that she could. Obiajulu sent her to several different schools, both public and private, in an effort to help her adapt to a variety of people. Her mom's plan didn't only include grade school however. Obiajulu had her eyes on a bigger prize.

"When I was 16, she decided that she wanted me to go to Oxford," Asher said in her TED Talk. "And she sat down and she thought okay, how can I guarantee that my child is going to get into Oxford? What can I do to make that happen?" The answer was a heavily restricted TV schedule. Only the BBC, and Zain's future employer, CNN International, were the networks she was allowed to watch. This was to last for 18 months. But not only was everyday TV off the table, so was music and telephone. Asher was left with nothing but her studies, and the hopes of making it to Oxford.

Those hopes were realized, and Asher graduated from Oxford with a degree in Spanish and French in 2005. She later went to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. While she began her career as a receptionist, she eventually became a reporter, and joined CNN in 2012. She's now a respected journalist, and gave her mother the credit for her success. Asher Zain's brother, Chiwetel Ejiofor, also benefited from his upbringing, as he went on to become an Academy Award nominated actor and director. Zain praised her brother in 2014 when he was nominated for his work in "12 Years a Slave," telling CNN, "It is a true testament to the importance of hard work."