Tragic Details About CNN's Laura Coates

Laura Coates has been working for CNN since 2016, and she began hosting her own show on the network, "Laura Coates Live" starting in 2023. Six years earlier, Coates started building experience headlining her own program with the "Laura Coates Show" on SiriusXM. Before she became a media star, Coates had a successful legal career, working on a diverse caseload. "I was always draw drawn, interestingly enough, to the storytelling aspect to the law," she explained to "Story in the Public Square."  

Even though her enthusiasm for storytelling would make it seem like she was a natural fit for a media role, Coates had to overcome challenges when she decided to switch from working in the U.S. Justice Department to a radio and TV job. "I literally remember leaving and people laughing at me and saying, 'oh she'll be back ... you're gonna try to do television, Laura, that's cute,'" Coates recalled on "Tamron Hall." Happily, she was able to tune out the naysayers and take any failures in stride. Eventually, her tenacity paid off. "Through a series of serendipitous occasions I really got my launch in radio and eventually TV," she added.

Unfortunately, Coates has had to deal with difficulties that weren't as easily surmountable, including health scares, grief, and traumatic experiences both personal and professional. In each instance, she's approached these situations thoughtfully and with courage. Let's take a look. 

On November 20, 2012, Laura Coates welcomed her first child, Adrian. Unfortunately, it was a traumatic birth experience. "I almost died," Coates stated during a CNN broadcast. She experienced significant hemorrhaging. Luckily, blood transfusions saved her life. "I was scared," Coates added. "I desperately wanted my child to be healthy and for me to live through the childbirth."

Coates' worries for her son's health appeared earlier in the pregnancy. In her book "Just Pursuit," Coates recalled her ob-gyn explaining potential concerns about her unborn child, stating, "An elevated alpha-fetoprotein level usually is an indication of spina bifida or some neural tube defect." The physician then informed her of the option to have an abortion. To make the situation even more fraught, Coates learned this news during a brief recess for a trial, so she was unable to leave work immediately to gain more information and process her emotions.

"Fortunately, my son was born healthy and strong and the tests were wrong," Coates later informed "Story in the Public Square." However, the emotional turmoil remained. When writing her book, Coates felt compelled to examine the parallels between the child abuse case she had been involved with at the time and her concerns about her son. "Here I was prepared to be a champion for a child that was harmed and had no idea what kind of champion I might need to be for child I carried," Coates added.

Laura Coates and Dale Gordon also have a daughter, Sydney. While Coates has candidly acknowledged the joys and the difficulties of parenting, in 2018, her emotions almost overwhelmed her as she described a conversation with her youngest child about skin color. "It was so devastating to hear my daughter tell me this morning that she just didn't like the way she looked," Coates revealed on her Sirius XM show (via HipHollywood). "I'm sorry to cry but it broke my heart." The host went on to share her fears about how her daughter's self-image concerns could impact her in school and as she reached adolescence. Coates also appealed to her listeners and requested help and advice.

Coates has admitted that she sometimes hasn't felt ready had to delve into difficult topics with her two kids. "I thought I was years away from conversations around racism and antisemitism and homophobia and police brutality," she explained in an interview on Facebook. Despite her feelings, Coates has challenged herself to have these discussions with them. "It's my job as a mother to make sure that I'm exposing them to life as it is ... and be resilient."

The CNN host has noted that her own parents were good role models and they, too, were candid about exposing her to a range of life experiences. "They let me see who they were," Coates said on "Tamron Hall," "flaws and all."

When Alex Trebek died in November 2020, Laura Coates expressed her condolences and connected the sad circumstances to her own family history. "When my own grandmother lost her battle w/ pancreatic cancer, the void she left was devastating & unimaginable," Coates explained on X (formerly Twitter.)

Coates and Trebek formed an unexpected bond after he complimented her in a 2018 interview and suggested that she was one of his top picks to replace him as a "Jeopardy" host. At the time, Coates tweeted her excitement and appreciation, noting that Trebek's praise had boosted her reputation with her children. After Trebek revealed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Coates was able to personally connect with him and express her empathy as well as her gratitude for his recommendation. During an appearance on "Tamron Hall," Coates commented on her frustration with the disease. "It just angers me still that we continue to lose so many great people to it," she remarked.

After Trebek's death, Coates followed up on his suggestion that she work on "Jeopardy." While she was disappointed she didn't get the job, Coates didn't let the rejection discourage her. Besides remaining positive, Coates found humor in the situation, comparing how the job would differ to her role as a journalist. She joked to Hall, "Do you know how much easier my life would be if I had the answers in advance ... it would be great!"

Unfortunately, the journalism profession can expose reporters to horrible tragedies, and Laura Coates experienced this situation in April 2024. While covering Donald Trump's "hush money" case in New York, Coates witnessed a disturbing incident. As panic ensued, Coates later informed CNN, "We first thought it was an active shooter." Instead, Coates saw a person set himself on fire and watched as people scrambled to extinguish the flames. She pivoted from interview she'd been conducting to give viewers an explanation of the scene. "I cannot ... overstate the emotional response of watching a human being engulfed in flames," Coates stated (via The Recount) "What an emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment."

Coates received an outpouring of sympathy and respect from her audience, including praise for the calm, measured way she communicated while providing the relevant details of the situation. Although she controlled her emotions in the moment, Coates later reflected on its traumatic impact. "I wish I could unsee it. My nose wishes to unsmell it. My heart breaks for that man and his family," she reflected on CNN (via Instagram).

This isn't the only time Coates' job has required her to act as an intermediary. That same month, Coates cautioned viewers before CNN aired disturbing footage of a man fatally shooting a woman he mistakenly believed was involved in an extortion scheme. "I still cannot stop thinking about this unbelievably tragic story," Coates later admitted on Instagram.

Beyond the tragic events she's witnessed working as a TV journalist, ordeals from Laura Coates' previous career as an attorney continue to impact her life. Sadly, even some of the most mundane situations have acted as a trigger for memories of cases that occurred years in the past. "I'll be walking in the grocery store with my daughter and see Goldfish crackers on the shelf and I'll remember the way a defendant would use it to reward a child who kept her own abuse a secret," Coates explains in her memoir "Just Pursuit." 

After being involved with multiple cases involving children being harmed by caregivers, Coates has sometimes questioned her own parenting decisions. To work through these difficult emotions, Coates engages in helpful self-talk: "this didn't happen to your children," she writes. "You aren't that mother. You would never hurt your child."

Coates has also remarked that this connection between her kids and her cases also happened while she was a prosecutor. She found it difficult to separate her work and home lives. "Once I became a mother  ... it was no longer possible for me to not see someone's child in every room," she explained during a talk at the DC Public Library. "It was nearly impossible for me to not be emotional." Coates noted things became particularly intertwined during her pregnancies since she was constantly reminded of her children's presence as they moved in utero.