CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar tells the stories of military families like hers
Brianna Keilar is the anchor of “CNN Right Now” and also writes the column “Home Front” about military families. (CNN)
Brianna Keilar was on set in the CNN studio, watching what was supposed to be a regular press briefing on live TV.
But instead of the typical address by then-press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on that day in 2017, John Kelly — President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff — came out to address the deaths of U.S. service members in Niger.
“We were live with him discussing what it was to lose a service member and the actual physical process of the body’s transport back to the U.S. through Germany, and I just lost it,” said Keilar, host of “CNN Right Now.” “All I could think of was that being my husband, you know?”
Keilar, 39, was a guest on episode 37 of The Spouse Angle podcast, where she offered listeners some insight into her journalism career and how being a military spouse has informed her reporting and made stories like these more personal.
“I managed to compose myself in time to be on air, but I know that I experienced that story so much differently than non-military connected people,” she said.
Brianna Keilar has been an Army spouse since 2016. (Brianna Keilar)
In late 2016 Keilar married her Green Beret husband, Army Col. Fernando Lujan, and was inspired to start the CNN column “Home Front” to share the experiences of military families like hers.
“When I became a military spouse — and especially when my husband deployed — I really had a rude awakening to everything that is underwater on the iceberg that is the military because instead of seeing a service member, I realized just how many people there were affected by them in their family,” said Keilar, who is also an ambassador for the nonprofit Blue Star Families. “And I also learned that in order for the military to do its job, you have this cast of so many people behind the scenes doing their jobs, you know — even if it’s changing diapers, which was the case for me.”
CNN Anchor Brianna Keilar and Army Col. Fernando Lujan with sons Antonio, left, and Teddy, right. (Brianna Keilar)
In her column, Keilar has written about the struggles of military family life — including trying to plan a pregnancy around a war — as well as the strengths that the military community has to offer. Recently, she published a guide to surviving the pandemic with advice from military spouses for their civilian counterparts.
“I hear a lot of frustration from my civilian friends about when is this [pandemic] going to end?” she said. “And it’s almost like a deployment, right? Well, we know it is going to end, but probably later than you want it to and you have to kind of just say that it’s no fun but we’re just going to hang in and survive it until we can, or survive it until it’s over.”
“One of the things that I’ve thought about during this pandemic is how [military spouses] have built up muscles, and they’ve learned about how to deal with these kinds of things, and that they’re in a place where they can be a resource to civilian families,” she continued.
Keilar welcomes story ideas for her column at homefront@cnn.com.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct Brianna Keilar’s location during the 2017 press briefing.