'GMA' anchor Dan Harris to leave ABC News after 21 years
NEW YORK -- After more than 20 years with ABC News, "Good Morning America" weekend co-anchor Dan Harris announced Sunday that he's leaving the company in two months.
The former "Nightline" co-anchor said he made the "difficult decision" so he can focus on "Ten Percent Happier," a meditation-focused movement he started after having a panic attack on-air.
"Even though I'm a public proponent of work-life balance, if I'm honest, I've struggled to follow my own advice. So I recently asked ABC News management to let me out of my contract early," Harris said.
Harris joined ABC News in March 2000 and has reported on some of the biggest stories in recent years, including the war in Afghanistan, the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
He received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his reporting on a young Iraqi man who received the help he needed in order to move to America, and in 2009 won an Emmy Award for his "Nightline" report, "How to Buy a Child in Ten Hours."
Along with his "GMA" anchoring position, which he has held since 2010, he has filed reports for "World News Tonight," "GMA," ABC News Digital and ABC News Radio.
"This is very hard for me," he said Sunday on "GMA." "I love ABC News ... I became an adult here, although some of my co-hosts may dispute that."
Prior to joining ABC News, Harris worked for New England Cable News, WCSH, an NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine, and WLBZ, the NBC affiliate in Bangor, Maine.
His 2014 book "10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Really Works -- a True Story," appeared number one on the New York Times Bestseller List.
