The Globe and Mail’s Suzanne Ma has an interview with former HLN anchor Lynne Russell…

She left CNN in 2001 because she wanted to change her lifestyle. “Life is too short,” she said. “And I was tired of trying to catch up all the time.” Both her parents died that year and Beck was diagnosed with colon cancer (he underwent surgery and is now cancer-free). Life at CNN was also in a state of flux, after the network was purchased by the newly merged AOL Time Warner.

“I watched good friends and colleagues have to leave . . . and things were being changed so dramatically. Finally, when I was asked what I wanted to do to change the evening shift [the shift Russell had worked on for years], I said, ‘I think I’ll just go home now.’ ”

Two weeks later, Russell went home for good. “There are still wonderful journalists at CNN and very dear friends of mine . . . but the mission is over,” she said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of a birth of a network, but it’s changed so much and you can’t miss what’s not there any more.”