MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Who is Clarissa Ward's husband? CNN reporter exits Kabul to reunite with German count spouse

'Just landed in Doha with the team and nearly 300 Afghan evacuees,' Clarissa Ward tweeted on Friday, August 20 on her way back home to her husband

Clarissa Ward, CNN's chief international correspondent who became the eyes and ears for the news network on the ground after Taliban took over Kabul recently, often creating headlines with her updates, officially bid farewell to Afghanistan on Friday, August 20, making her way to Qatar. Qatar has accepted a number of refugees fleeing the war-torn nation. 

"Just landed in Doha with the team and nearly 300 Afghan evacuees. Huge thanks to all of you for your support and concern, to the US Air Force for flying us out, and to Qatar for welcoming us. We are the lucky ones," Ward tweeted on Friday, August 20. She also gave a glimpse of the aircraft in which she left Kabul on both her Twitter as well as Instagram accounts. It showed several desperate Afghans packed into the plane who were trying to flee the brutal Islamic regime. 

READ MORE

Joe Biden goes on HOLIDAY again! POTUS has worked for only 4 days during Afghan fiasco

Glenn Beck's call makes audience donate $22M in TWO days to rescue Christians from Afghanistan

However, her journey out of Afghanistan was not a smooth and easy one. Her tweet updates just hours before her scheduled flight revealed the situation on the ground. "The fourth bird we were supposed to get on just got pulled. Going to be a long night here, especially for those we are talking to who have been here since yesterday evening. A woman just asked me for a blanket so I gave her my scarf," she tweeted. She also bore witness to the plight of the Afghans who were stuck in their country with no way out.

"Afghan evacuees try to sleep on the gravel with C17’s in the background. It’s a chilly night and incredibly loud, especially after 14 hours. One Afghan acquaintance tells me 'it’s an insult to human dignity… I don’t know why the Americans are doing this,'" she wrote in a tweet, saying in another, "Soldiers by the runway at Kabul airport tell me that there are 10,000 people here processed and ready to go… but nowhere to fly them to because Qatar is refusing to accept more Afghans because they’ve reached capacity. 'It’s abysmal… someone needs to step up.'"

Only yesterday CNN aired a clip where an armed Taliban fighter charged at Ward while she reported from Kabul. In her report, Ward said that she and her crew were “accosted” just outside of the Kabul Airport and she was forced to cover her face. The clip she shared showed a Taliban member running through a crowd of people after taking the safety off of his AK-47. She also showed a clip of a Taliban member charging at her and a producer using the butt of his gun.

Incidentally, she created headlines a week back when she was slammed for calling the Taliban 'friendly'. While reporting on August 16, Ward said, “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America’ but they seem friendly at the same time.” Describing the scene as bizarre, Ward noted that although the Taliban terrorists appeared friendly, the “welcoming spirit only extends so far and my presence soon creates tension.”

Who is Clarissa Ward's husband, Philipp von Bernstorff?

Clarissa Ward is married to Philipp von Bernstorff, and the couple lives in London. Together, they have a son, Ezra Albrecht Nikolas Nour, who was born on March 2, 2018. Ward met Bernstorff at a dinner party in Moscow in 2007. Bernstorff is a businessman and German count, and the couple married in November 2016 at London’s Chelsea Old Town Hall.

Instead of a grand party, the pair opted for a simple ceremony followed by lunch at their Notting Hill home for just 46 guests when they got married. “Perhaps covering war does give you a slightly different perspective,” Ward told Town & Country. “In the grand scheme of things to freak out about, this is not one of them. I was weeping so much, but in a beautiful way. I mean not that I looked beautiful but that it was a happy kind of weeping.” 

Philipp is not a big social media person, unlike his wife, Ward who keeps posting couple pictures, and candid family snaps. Last year on November 20, Ward wished her husband on his birth, posting an array of adorable pictures of him with her and their son. She also recalled a sweet moment from the time they first met. 

"Happy birthday to the most elegant man I know, my partner in crime for 13 years, a wonderful husband, friend and father. Lover of animals, hater of social media (but luckily he’s not on IG so can’t get cross about this). When I first met Philipp and told him what I did for a living he looked at me and said, 'I think war correspondents are egomaniacs.' I had met my match. I am so grateful that I get to share my life with this wonderful man who is blessed with great integrity, terrific humour, and a fantastic head of hair. What more could a girl ask for?" she wrote in the caption.