Anna Wintour, 75, Steps Down From Top Role at US Vogue in Shock Move
The magazine maven is leaving her best-known role editing the fashion magazine after 37 years.
Noam Galai/Getty
Anna Wintour revealed Thursday that she plans to leave her post as head of editorial content at American Vogue.
The shock announcement was first reported by fashion industry bible Women’s Wear Daily after Wintour shared the news in a staff meeting Thursday morning.
Wintour, 75, has been editor in chief of Vogue for 37 years, having first taken the role in 1988. She’s become known for her ubiquitous presence in fashion front rows and inspiring the character of Miranda Priestly in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, where she was portrayed by Meryl Streep.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 23: Anna Wintour arrives to the opening of "Othello" on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 23, 2025 in New York City.
James Devaney/GC Images
Wintour didn’t reveal when her last day will be, but American Vogue is already seeking a new head of editorial content.
However, she will stay on as global editorial director of Vogue, and as global chief content officer of Vogue parent company Condé Nast.
Wintour's tenure at Vogue notably inspired the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, the character inspired by the editor.
20th Century Fox
Born in Hampstead, London, Wintour began her storied fashion journalism career more than 50 years ago, when she became an editorial assistant at Harper’s & Queen in 1970.
Wintour is known for her ubiquitous presence in the front row of Fashion Week shows.
Aitor Rosas Sune/WWD via Getty Images
In 1975, she moved to New York to become a junior fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar. She then joined New York Magazine as a fashion editor in 1981 before a bidding war with Vogue landed her a role as the magazine’s first-ever creative director under then-editor in chief Grace Mirabella in 1983.
Beyond 'Vogue,' Wintour is also known for hosting the annual Met Gala, which she first co-chaired in 1995.
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Wintour was then briefly the editor in chief of British Vogue in 1985, before returning to New York to take over House & Garden. She assumed her role at American Vogue three years later, in 1988.
Wintour is known for her famous feuds, the most prominent of which has been with President Donald Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
As editor-in-chief of Vogue, she has been the most recognizable face of fashion journalism and the fashion industry’s most powerful tastemaker, known as much for her feuds and obsessions, her running of the Met Gala, and her Democratic politics as for the contents of her magazine.
Wintour's Vogue has declined to feature First Lady Melania Trump in its pages during either of Trump's terms, despite historically including every First Lady at least once.
Vogue
She and Donald Trump have long been rivals, with Trump lashing out more than once at her refusal to put his wife, Melania, on the magazine’s cover since he entered politics. The first lady covered Vogue in 2005, just weeks after her wedding to the future president.
Hillary Clinton, who later earned Vogue's first-ever endorsement as a presidential candidate, covered the magazine while serving as First Lady in 1998.
Vogue
Perhaps Wintour’s most famous feud was with Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley, who died in 2022. The pair, both omnipresent at fashion industry events, were once best friends, with Wintour promoting Talley to creative director when she became editor in chief and Talley calling her “the most important woman in my universe.”
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But their relationship soured after Talley left the magazine in 2013, and in 2020, the former editor wrote in his memoir The Chiffon Trenches that Wintour had frozen him out because he was “‘too old, too overweight, too uncool” for her image. Talley died in financial turmoil at his home in White Plains, not long after his landlords revealed he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent.
Wintour and Talley were longtime friends until Talley left 'Vogue' in 2013. Afterward, he said Wintour iced him out of her inner circle.
Shane Gritzinger/FilmMagic
Wintour also butted heads with another colleague, former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, who told The New York Times in March that he “found Anna’s efforts to seem intimidating and powerful almost comical.”
Carter has said their friendship declined after Wintour was promoted to Artistic Director of Condé Nast—which also owns Vanity Fair—in 2013, at which point she abruptly transferred half of Vanity Fair’s staff to positions that would report directly to her instead of him.
“I have great affection for Anna, but she took to power rather than being the cozy, conspiratorial friend she used to be,” wrote Carter in his 2025 memoir When the Going Was Good.
Former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter says his relationship with Wintour soured after she became Artistic Director of Condé Nast in 2013.
Thos Robinson/Getty Images
Beyond her famous feuds, Wintour has no shortage of famous friends. Former members of her circle include Diddy, who hosted the Met Gala after party in 2023; Ye, who covered Vogue with ex-wife Kim Kardashian before Wintour cut ties over his antisemitic tirade in 2022; and Karl Lagerfeld, who faced allegations of racism, sexism, and homophobia before his 2023 death.
Her slightly less controversial famous friends include supermodel Kate Moss, designer Marc Jacobs, and the Beckham family.
Wintour reportedly told staffers Ye would no longer make appearances in Vogue or attend the Met Gala after his string of antisemitic rants in 2022.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for CFDA/Vogue
Wintour is twice divorced and was romantically linked to British actor Bill Nighy. There has been mounting speculation that her daughter, Bee Shaffer—from her first marriage to child psychiatrist David Shaffer—is being groomed for a significant role at Vogue or Condé Nast.
Wintour's daughter, Bee Shaffer, 37, has been widely speculated to be a potential replacement.
TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic
Wintour was last seen at the wedding of her close friend Huma Abedin to billionaire Alex Soros in the Hamptons, which was lavishly photographed for Vogue and which the editor had been part of styling.
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