This was posted on Thursday, July 27, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
CNN afternoon anchor and Westminster Schools grad Brooke Baldwin got engaged to her boyfriend James Fletcher last week while on vacation.
Baldwin posted the news on Instagram last week and I spoke with her briefly in person at CNN's New York offices yesterday.
The anchor, whose show airs from 2 to 4 p.m. daily, said she was on her 38th birthday in Kauai in Hawaii when he proposed. "We were chilling on the beach," she said. "We love sunsets. It was simple. I didn't want a big thing." She was caught totally by surprise.
"He did well," she added. "All I wanted on my birthday was to be on a surfboard. I got a little bit more than that."
This will be Baldwin's first marriage. (She is befuddled that some random websites say she has been married to some veterinarian she has never heard of since 2010.)
Baldwin and Fletcher met at a holiday party in 2015 while Fletcher was coming through town. She was about to leave for Christmas in Atlanta so she insisted they have dinner right then and there. She soon invited him to New Orleans where she covers New Year's for CNN. He said yes.
During the whirlwind news-packed 2016, "if I wasn't at a campaign stop or debate or terror attack," she said, "I was hanging out with him either in New York or somewhere around the world." While vacationing with him in France a year ago, she ended up covering the Instanbul airport attacks and he joined her.
"I knew he was the guy since I met him," Baldwin said. "He's been incredibly flexible being with me."
A British native, Fletcher is a producer and director, having produced ads for political campaigns. He's living in New York with her right now and received his U.S. visa last year.
Clearly, her move to New York from Atlanta three years ago by orders of new boss Jeff Zucker has brought her dividends in more ways than one. (Much of her production team remains at CNN Center and she is going to be back in Atlanta a week from Friday to hang out with them and do her show from Atlanta for old time's sake.)
Rodney Ho
Rodney Ho