CNN founder Ted Turner has sparked suicide concerns after his biographer revealed the 83-year-old suffered from the same debilitating, incurable disease that led Robin Williams to kill himself – and carries the same gun in money that his father used to kill himself.

Still, the media mogul, who has long openly expressed his disgust at what recently ousted President Jeff Zucker did to his network, reportedly hoped he could return to the news station he once was.

Turner, now 83, suffers from declining health due to Lewy body syndrome – the same condition Robin Williams had before he took his own life in 2014.

Porter Bibb – a former Newsweek White House correspondent who wrote Turner’s biography, It Ain’t as Easy as It Looks, in 1993 after interviewing 222 people who worked for Turner, plus two of his three ex-wives and all his children – revealed the grim prognosis in an interview with The Ankler on February 17.

“Ted has Lewy Body Syndrome – the same irreversible brain disease that Robin Williams had and he ended up killing himself,” Bibb said, noting, “I thought it was the same thing that could happen to Ted.

“Ted is famous for carrying a silver pistol that his father killed himself with. He packed it all his life.

“If he loses his brain, I’m sure he’ll follow Robin Williams, so I thought it was time to do something about it,” Bibb said of a possible bio-picture of Turner, which founded CNN as the first news station. in 1980.

But as it has become increasingly opinion-based over the years, Turner has become a critic of the network and actually agrees with John Malone, a major Discovery shareholder, on the network’s future then. Discovery completes its acquisition of WarnerMedia for $43 billion. .

“John Malone is not only voicing his own opinion on what CNN should be doing as a news network, but he’s speaking on Ted’s behalf,” Bibb said, noting that Turner was long overdue. ‘categorically’ against what ousted CNN World President Jeff Zucker ‘did with CNN, turning it into a opinion network, to compete with FOX and losing the concept of 24/7 hard news days out of 7”.

Turner now suffers from Lewy Body Syndrome, the same irreversible brain condition that actor Robin Williams (pictured) suffered from before he took his own life in 2014.

Turner first revolutionized the news industry in 1970, when he purchased a UHC station in Atlanta, Georgia, and turned it into the nation’s first “superstation” with the breakthrough of a satellite to transmit programming to cable companies across the United States.

In 1980, he founded the Cable News Network, convinced that the public wanted a station they could turn to for news whenever they wanted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He had an “almost fanatical belief” that the station was fair, reports The Hollywood Reporter, and told executives to spend “whatever it took” to accurately cover the Gulf War – refusing to back down even when the President George W. Bush called his leader. news director and begged him to remove the CNN reporter from Baghdad.

Bibb chronicled Turner’s rise to power and fame in the book It’s Not As Easy As It Seems

“When he was running CNN, he would stay up for 24, 30, even 40 hours and then collapse,” Bibb said of Turner. “He lived and slept on CNN. He had a small apartment above the press room building.

“They wouldn’t see him for 24 hours and then he would come back full of energy.”

But in October 1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, and Turner became vice president of the parent company, soon becoming sidelined by Jerry Levin, the head of Time Warner.

According to Bibb, Levin called Turner at 2:30 a.m. “on the morning of the AOL merger” in 2000.

“It was the first time Ted had heard of it, and he was on the board and was the major shareholder at the time,” Bibb told The Ankler, noting, “It was the worst deal in the world. world for Ted.

“He had a net worth of over $20 billion before AOL,” Bibb explained. “Once that was dissolved, Ted’s wealth was down over 50%.

“After that, he became known as a hostile shareholder.”

“Levin and company took away his number one parking spot at Turner Field,” Bibb said. “They said ‘Ted, your son Ted Jr. is overpaid. You don’t use it.

“Nobody, including Zucker today, had a time of day for Ted Turner or any of his ideas. He just became more and more critical of the fact that they were no longer a complete information network.

Turner, now 83, was gradually pushed out of a leadership position in the network following a 1996 merger with Time Warner. He is pictured here at the 2019 Turner Classic Movie Classic Film Festival in Hollywood

Jeff Zucker served as president of CNN Worldwide until he stepped down earlier this month following an investigation into his affair with Vice President Allison Gollust

In fact, Bibb said, Turner would agree with Malone’s criticism of the network under Time Warner.

Malone is a supporter of Zucker’s most emboldened foe, Donald Trump. He donated $250,000 to Trump’s 2017 inauguration and made no secret of the fact that he, like Trump and millions of others, thinks CNN has become too left-wing and biased.

“I would love to see CNN go back to the kind of journalism it started with and have reporters, which would be unique and refreshing,” he told CNBC in 2019.

“I believe good journalism could play a role in this future portfolio that Discovery-TimeWarner will represent.”

AT&T bought WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) in 2018 for $84 billion. It’s a disastrous deal that the telecom giant has been trying to unravel for years. He is finally in the final stages of a $43 billion sale from WarnerMedia to Discovery.

For legal reasons, Discovery must avoid getting involved with WarnerMedia until the deal has been approved by the US government.

However, in November last year, after news broke of the impending merger, Malone made it clear he was not a fan of the direction CNN was heading under Zucker, who took the helm in 2013.

John Malone, Discovery’s majority shareholder, criticized CNN and said he would like to see ‘CNN get back to the kind of journalism it started with’

Malone was also credited with ousting Zucker, after learning of the ex-president’s affair with Vice President Allison Gollus.

“Discovery’s largest shareholder, John Malone, a CNN critic, advised that company procedures must be followed to the letter when it comes to Zucker, we learned,” Deadline previously reported. .

“Given that WarnerMedia’s standards of business conduct require disclosure of relationships that develop with a boss and subordinate, Zucker’s goose has been officially cooked,” the report added.

Zucker and Allison Gollus worked together for 20 years. The couple claim their relationship turned romantic during the pandemic, but others say it long predates COVID and was public knowledge for eight years.

Zucker resigned from his post earlier this month, admitting he was “wrong” for not telling the company about the relationship.

Gollust also announced her resignation last week as CNN’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer following an independent investigation into “issues related to Chris Cuomo and former Governor Andrew Cuomo,” said WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar in a statement.

According to sources cited by Rolling Stone on Thursday, the couple broke journalism ethics to help Cuomo behind the scenes in the same way his younger brother Chris did.

Chris was fired from CNN for helping Andrew through a sexual misconduct scandal and in the messy fallout of his departure, the affair between Zucker and Gollus resurfaced.

Both were to take on leadership positions at the new company, under Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

But now Michael Bass, Amy Entelis and Ken Jauntz have been named acting network chiefs to replace Zucker.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a prevention network of 161 crisis centers that provides a free 24/7 helpline available to anyone in a suicidal crisis or in emotional distress.

If you need assistance, please call 1-800-273-8255.