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Former CNN anchor Valerie Hoff DeCarlo died last week at the age of 62 following a battle with lung cancer, her husband, Derrick DeCarlo, confirmed to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“She was a force with everything she did,” he said. “She was a strong, capable, loving woman and a wonderful mother.”
DeCarlo was initially hired by CNN as a writer in 1990 before working as an anchor on CNN Headline News and the now-defunct CNN Airport network, having also reported on fashion, money and nutrition. The veteran journalist eventually left the cable news network for 11Alive in Atlanta in 1999, a role she held until April 2017 when she was exposed for having used the N-word in a private Twitter conversation on the station's account.
DeCarlo sought permission from Curtis Rivers to use a video of a white police officer punching a black motorist and jokingly repeated Rivers' use of the phrase "news n***as" on his feed to describe journalists during their interaction. Rivers said he felt offended when he found out DeCarlo was white and shared their interactions publicly.
“It was incredibly stupid, but I can’t take it back now,” Hoff told the AJC at the time. “I have never used that word. Ask anyone who knows me.”
Derrick DeCarlo said his wife was initially given a two-week suspension for the incident before being forced to resign from 11Alive, which resulted in a breach of contract lawsuit that was eventually settled out of court. Valerie was previously diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and had remained a strong advocate for breast cancer awareness.