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The Amanpour Hour
Interview With Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin; Interview With Former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes; "The Mothers of Kherson"; Interview With 18-Time Grand Slam Tennis Champion And Former Number 1 Tennis Player Chris Evert; Interview With 18-Time Grand Slam Tennis Champion And Former Number 1 Tennis Player Martina Navratilova; The Hope Of The Post Soviet Era; Sagrada Familia's Papal Moment. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired June 13, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:35]
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR in Paris.
Here's where we're headed this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Iran and the United States trade blows as the Middle East remains stuck in a cycle of strikes and fragile truces. Can Europe play mediator? Former French foreign minister and vocal critic of the warm, Dominique de Villepin, joins me.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN RHODES, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: You are going to have a more militarized and hardline Iranian government on the back end of this war.
AMANPOUR: What will post-war Iran look like? I asked former top Obama official, Ben Rhodes, where he sees this heading and about lessons America can draw from its own past.
Then -- "Mothers of Kherson", a new opera tells the story of three Ukrainian women and their fight to bring home their abducted children. My report on the families Russia has torn apart.
Also ahead --
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA, 18-TIME GRAND SLAM TENNIS CHAMPION AND FORMER NUMBER 1 TENNIS PLAYER: Chris was the enemy and she's the one that I had to beat to get to number one.
AMANPOUR: Fierce rivals, fast friends. I speak to major Grand Slam tennis champions Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova about their new Netflix documentary, "The Final Set", and their shared off-court battles against cancer.
Plus, from my archives, 35 years since Boris Yeltsin became the first democratically-elected president of Russia. A look back at a brief era of hope with the collapse of the USSR.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in Paris.
And we begin with the Middle East. It's been another head spinning week as both countries went from firing missiles at each other to a possible deal to end the war. And meantime, Israel continues to attack southern Lebanon despite President Trump calling for a halt to its strikes against the capital, Beirut.
So where does Europe stand on all of this? It's avoided direct military involvement in the conflict. But like the rest of the world, Europe is also feeling the bite of rising fuel costs with disruption in the Strait of Hormuz exposing Europe's energy vulnerabilities.
The European Union is in a diplomatic bind, too. Unable to rein in President Trump, and their repeated calls for deescalation falling on deaf ears.
I speak to Dominique de Villepin, a former French foreign minister and prime minister famous for dramatically rejecting President Bush's 2003 war on Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Former foreign minister de Villepin, welcome back to our program.
DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN, FORMER FRENCH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much.
AMANPOUR: Let me first ask you, because we're right in the middle of what seems to be yet another crucial turning point. Trump and Iran facing off against each other, the French hosting all the world's major economies, G7 countries.
What do you think Europe and its G7 allies will say to Trump? What's the best that you think can emerge from this meeting regarding the crises that are faced right now?
DE VILLEPIN: Well, what we can say right now is that we are seeing the consequences of the U.S. and Israeli intervention in the Gulf. And if I can take this image, I would put it this way. It is a geopolitical Chernobyl.
We are seeing the chain reaction of this big event. And what we see is a meltdown of the core reactor, that is, the U.S. leadership.
And we are facing a situation that nobody anymore is controlling. War feeds the war. Another intervention will feed more intervention. And we all know the lesson from history and many centuries ago that peace cannot go through force and strength. This is a very strong illusion that is having Donald Trump.
[11:04:45]
AMANPOUR: So, you're saying basically that the U.S. foreign policy, based on strength, as even they have spoken about publicly, especially after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, you're saying that it's not going to achieve the ends that they want to achieve.
So, with Trump appearing to want to get out of this war and it not happening yet, what do you think Europe can do to help him out of the war? Do you think they should try, having not tried and not taken part in the actual war?
DE VILLEPIN: Well, I think the Europeans have a good understanding of the balance of forces in the region. We all understand that most of the Gulf countries want peace.
They have seen the consequences of the U.S. strikes as well as the Israeli strikes on Iran. And what has been the consequence?
The consequence has been even a more tightened regime. It has strengthened the strongest in the regime, which are the Pazurans, the revolutionary guards.
So, we are far away from getting rid of this awful regime, as we have seen during the first weeks of the year. And we have to face this reality.
So, the first thing I believe for the European is to have an immediate and verifiable ceasefire in all active fronts, which means Gaza, which means Lebanon, and of course, Iran.
The second point, I think, which is key, is to have free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
Third point, support the sovereignty of Lebanon. We won't have peace in the Gulf if Lebanon is not linked with the situation in Iran, because of the nature of relationship between Iran and the Hezbollah.
So, we have to face the globality of the consequences. That means to find a global regional diplomatic framework, and the Europeans have a strong understanding of the situation in the region, as well as a very good knowledge of the nuclear question, which is, of course, at the center of all the preoccupation.
We need to address, and to enter into an important nuclear negotiation, as well as a negotiation on the missiles and all the proxies of the region.
Donald Trump today doesn't have the ability to enter in such negotiations. He doesn't have the knowledge, not have the patience to understand how to go forward.
AMANPOUR: Wow. You said, doesn't have the knowledge, doesn't have the patience, or I think the diplomatic teams to go ahead and take this forward.
DE VILLEPIN: Exactly.
AMANPOUR: But that puts a lot of burden on European leaders, who have been really trying to catch up with Donald Trump's policies, whether it's tariffs, whether it is these wars, whether it's essentially dropping the lion's share of American support for Ukraine putting it in Europe's hands.
Let's talk about the war in Ukraine, which is Europe's war now. Where do you think that is headed? Clearly, the Ukrainians are making quite important strides. But where do you think that is headed? And how do you think, you know, Putin will be convinced to come to the bargaining table?
DE VILLEPIN: Yes. Well, what we see today in Ukraine is the fact that Europe has been able to take the lead concerning the situation in Ukraine.
Most of the support given to Ukraine goes through Europe. More than 200 billion euros has been spent since the start of the war. And the U.S. has been only supporting for a little more than 100 billion euros.
So, there is an imbalance. And today, most of the cooperation of the U.S. in direction of Ukraine has stopped.
So, the Europeans have shown some credibility in their capacity to master the situation with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At this point in time, the situation of Ukraine is a little bit better than the one of Russia. Russia is facing many difficulties in the Russian society. And Kyiv has shown its ability to strike all over Russia. And in the last weeks in St. Petersburg, where the economic forum was taking place.
So, that means that there is a possibility to convince Vladimir Putin, if Donald Trump plays his part.
[11:09:44]
DE VILLEPIN: And if Donald Trump understands that it is not given that Ukraine should accept the basic conditions of Russia to negotiate. Ukraine today is in a much better position. And we have to put a lot of weight on Russia and Vladimir Putin.
AMANPOUR: Former Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, thank you so much for joining me.
DE VILLEPIN: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Coming up, how has the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign actually impacted the Iranian regime? I talked to top former Obama official, Ben Rhodes, about his predictions for post-war Iran. And then later in the show, a bitter rivalry and extraordinary
friendship. My conversation with tennis legends, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
[11:10:32]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.
The seesaw between optimism and fear about the Middle East conflict has many Americans skeptical of another long war of choice there. So what is the best way to deal with monumental mistrust between the two sides that's been growing for decades?
President Obamas landmark Cairo speech to the Muslim world in 2009 recognized this challenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Rather than remain trapped in the past, I've made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward.
The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: My next guest helped write that speech and was also Obama's deputy national security adviser. Now, Ben Rhodes turns inwards to what defines America with his new book, "All We Say, the Battle for American Identity".
It traces 15 speeches from Benjamin Franklin to Donald Trump, arguing that the fight over the nation's story is far from settled.
And Ben Rhodes joined me from Washington. I started by asking him what he thought post-war Iran might look like, and if bombing could ever dislodge the regime.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RHODES: I think big picture is that you're going to have a more militarized and hardline Iranian government on the back end of this war.
And you know better than anybody, Christiane, the complexity of that regime. It was a kind of negotiation between the IRGC and a political leadership and a clerical leadership overseen by a supreme leader.
Well, when you decapitate the regime by assassinating the supreme leader and you create an existential threat to that regime, the IRGC are the ones who emerged both to crack down on the populace, but also, they're the ones who controlled the strait. The IRGC are the ones that closed the Strait of Hormuz. So, they're the ones who've generated the leverage, both on the United
States and in terms of the possibility of generating additional revenue by tolling that strait inside of Iran.
It also stands to reason that when you create an existential crisis in Iran, and this is why I never thought military regime change made any sense, the people with the most guns are going to be the people most powerful in the country, and that's the IRGC.
So, tragically, I think a regime change war that was launched on the basis of being helpful, although I'm not sure that was really the purpose, I think has led to a worse outcome for the Iranian people.
AMANPOUR: The Obama administration confronted the issue of the Middle East, and, you know, it basically accepted that you sort of pulled back a little bit with the pivot to Asia and hoping that the Middle East would resolve itself with American help to get a two-state solution and all of that.
Clearly that didn't work, and you've got an even more radical Israeli government. And I mean that word because you've got it flanked and run by extremists who have no interest in a Palestinian State, and in fact now are talking about the Gazafication of just about everything in the vicinity, whether it's Lebanon, whether it's the West Bank, whether it's still Gaza.
And I wonder what you think is going to happen there, particularly vis-a-vis the United States.
Let me just quote for you. You've probably read it. But Senator Chris Van Hollen has written in "The New York Times", "The status quo is unacceptable." He says, "It's past time that we use our leverage to end the occupation and achieve two states with full political and legal rights for all."
If you were back in the White House, do you think that that would be something that your administration would push for now?
RHODES: I do. And look, I mean, we should talk for a second here. I worry a lot with the direction that the Iran War is going. You have the potential -- or you're going to have to have an Israeli election later this year. Netanyahu has not achieved his objectives in Iran.
I worry that the escalation that we've already seen in Lebanon could coincide with escalation back into Gaza or escalation even further in the West Bank as Netanyahu tries to do his kind of far-right politics heading into that election cycle.
And so, the capacity for an Iran War to kind of be a frozen conflict and then to have Israel escalating in Lebanon, in the West Bank, in Gaza, perhaps in southern Syria again, I think that's a very real possibility.
And so, I think an American administration that is serious about that would not be providing military assistance or sales to an Israeli government that is disregarding not only American advice but, frankly, any recipe for peace and stability in the region.
[11:19:51]
AMANPOUR: I want to turn to your book, your new book, about America itself. It's titled "All We Say", and you took 15 speeches and looked historically and chose them very carefully as to what they said about America back then and now. It's basically, you say, the battle for American identity.
RHODES: I start with Benjamin Franklin because the speech that he authored that was a closing argument at the Constitutional Convention did not defend the Constitution. It defended compromise.
It said if a bunch of people are going to come together in a room with different interests, different views, different prejudices, then we are not going to have a union without compromise.
That made the country possible. And frankly, I think right now, part of the reason that American politics is so intense and disorientating is because, we've lost the capacity to have speeches that aim to adjudicate these questions and persuade, you know, to go back and to look at how FDR talked about the purpose of America being for freedoms, or Martin Luther King painting a picture of a dream that people could believe in in a multiracial democracy, or even an Obama and a Reagan who had very different politics but had a kind of moral grounding for how they built their coalitions through words.
We've kind of lost that ability to talk to and listen to one another.
AMANPOUR: I want to use excerpts of two speeches that epitomize what you've just talked about.
One, your former boss, President Obama, before the election when he was forced to respond, it was famously called the race speech in 2008 when he had to respond to negative publicity after his pastor said some stuff.
This is what Obama told the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We may have different stories but we hold common hopes. We may not look the same and may not have come from the same place but we all want to move in the same direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: And, Ben, I'm actually going to quickly play the Trump excerpt that I have. Trump then in his second inaugural talks about, you know, the exceptionalism that you're talking about, particularly in the wake of having that failed assassination attempt against him and how he feels he was handpicked by God.
Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RHODES: So, those are the last two chapters of the book, those two speeches.
And look, I'd say about Obama, I tell the story of being on the speech writing team for that speech. And Obama got a draft and he stayed up the entire night, and the next morning we get a document that is completely rewritten. And it was the most personal reckoning with race that he'd done.
But what he's saying, he's making a case in that speech for common identity, that we are a multiracial democracy where we work out our differences through politics.
And frankly, if we could build coalitions across races, we could solve the problems that had festered for so long. And they were hurting the working class of both black, white and brown people in the United States.
What is different about Trump from all of American history is the clip that you just played, Christiane. Never before. I have a Ronald Reagan speech, for instance, in the book. Could you imagine Ronald Reagan saying that he was saved by God to save America?
Trump situates himself outside of the boundaries. He agreed upon lines of political competition.
So, I think Obama and Trump kind of -- I ended the book with them because they capture perfectly this kind of two opposing stories. Although I think Trump is the one who's taken it a bit farther than anyone else before him.
AMANPOUR: Really interesting. And thanks for your obvious perspective on what's going on in the world right now.
Ben Rhodes, thank you.
RHODES: Thanks, Christiane.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Still to come, "The Mothers of Kherson", the new opera giving voice to three Ukrainian women and their fight to bring home their abducted children. My report after the break.
[11:23:36]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back. Now, as the world's attention is focused on the war in the Middle
East, Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine has gone on longer than World War 1. And hardly a week goes by without a deadly attack, with civilians, of course, paying the highest price. And families aren't just torn apart by missiles and bullets, but by Russia's forced abductions and transfer of Ukrainian children, which the United Nations says is a war crime, a crime against humanity, and has indicted Putin over it.
Well, three extraordinary women have risked their lives to bring their stolen ones home. And a new opera, "Mothers of Kherson" gives a voice to their pain.
It was co-commissioned by New York's Metropolitan Opera, and it premiered in Kyiv last week.
Take a look.
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AMANPOUR: It's been one of the most heart-wrenching and despicable crimes of the war.
Ukraine says around 20,000 of its children have been stolen away and illegally taken into Russia amid the chaos.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukrainian children must be brought home.
AMANPOUR: The Kremlin says it evacuated Ukrainian children for their own safety. Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has been slapped with an international arrest warrant over the children's alleged abduction.
[11:29:45]
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Nobody was going to separate those kids from their families.
AMANPOUR: But four years after he invaded Ukraine, many of these children are still far from home. Some, the lucky few, have been rescued by their parents from deep inside Russia.
And it's that courage and love that are the stars of a new opera co- commissioned by New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
"Courage comes easy when you've got one foot in the grave," one character sings.
ANZHELINA SHVACHKA, MAZZO-SOPRANO, NATIONAL OPERA OF UKRAINE (through translator): When I was preparing for this part, I could not hold my tears.
Every single bit of it is so heartbreaking. It brings up the feelings that every mother, every Ukrainian has. AMANPOUR: The work was given a preview in Kyiv this month before the Ukrainian first lady and some of the very mothers and children who inspired it.
Even with her son Maxine safely back in Ukraine now, the pain of their six-month separation still haunts Yulia.
YULIA, MOTHER OF RESCUED CHILD (through translator): I feel I am guilty for what happened.
AMANPOUR: This performance was a moment to step back from the war.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really liked it. We applauded and could have continued until the morning.
AMANPOUR: Although the trenches and the skies across Ukraine are still ablaze with missile and drone fire, art is beginning to take stock of what the war has cost.
OLENA ZELENSKA, FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE (through translator): News will go away, our diplomats and activists' voices will disappear, and art is here forever.
If we think about Picasso's "Guernica" and "Schindler's List", and "20 Days in Mariupol", we need such works.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (graphics): I had goosebumps non-stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I had goosebumps. You really get a feeling of what happened. We lived through this again.
AMANPOUR: As the pain and desperate desire to start living again in Ukraine takes center stage, one truth shines through. There is no love like a mother's love for her child.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And it was a cathartic moment when "The Mothers of Kherson" opened in Kyiv, with its real-life subject matter and the affected families in attendance. It's no surprise that it received, of course, an emotional response from the packed audience.
Coming up, bonded by triumph and tragedy, tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert open up to me about their new documentary, their on-court rivalry and their cancer battles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS EVERT, 18-TIME GRAND SLAM TENNIS CHAMPION AND FORMER NUMBER 1 TENNIS PLAYER: It just is ironic that we've had this journey in tennis and then all of a sudden we get cancer at the same time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:32:31]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back.
It was one of the greatest rivalries in sports. Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, two of the most outstanding tennis players ever to pick up a racket. Throughout the 70s and 80s, they lit up the sports world, ending their careers on 18 Grand Slams each.
Now, after years of battling it out on court, their friendship only grew off-court. A bond that became even tighter when they both faced a new kind of fight at the same time, cancer.
It's all documented in a new Netflix film. Take a look at part of the trailer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAVRATILOVA: Chris was the enemy and she's the one that I had to beat to get to number one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They do some damage to each other emotionally.
EVERT: If you want to be great at something, you give up things.
Sometimes it takes terrible things to happen for you to realize how you really feel about things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: The documentary debuted at the Tribeca Festival in New York earlier this week, and I sat down with Navratilova and evert during the French Open at Roland Garros here in Paris, overlooking center court, the site of some of their greatest victories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, welcome.
NAVRATILOVA: Thank you.
EVERT: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: This -- I don't know why I'm saying welcome, because this is your studio.
NAVRATILOVA: This is her studio. Mine is across the pond.
EVERT: Wimbledon.
AMANPOUR: Yes. Yours is Wimbledon and yours is here.
Ok. So, how does it feel being here where you did some of your greatest glory?
EVERT: It feels great. I mean --
NAVRATILOVA: Better.
EVERT: You know -- no, I mean, you know, when I'm watching these women, I just -- I remember myself out on the court and yes, the conditions are different. The rackets are different. The power, there's more power.
There's, you know, shot making and more athleticism. But at the same time, the way you play on clay remains the same.
NAVRATILOVA: The emotions are the same.
EVERT: Yes.
AMANPOUR: And what are the emotions?
NAVRATILOVA: Well, you run the gamut. I mean, sometimes it happens in just one match. Sometimes in one game, you can go from total euphoria to being so depressed or, you know, emotional.
Nowadays, they get a lot of help from the coaches. We had to figure it out by ourselves.
AMANPOUR: Well, let's talk about that because that part of the documentary that is so interesting, you came away from Czechoslovakia. You defected when you were in the United States at one U.S. Open.
And ok, we understand that. But I didn't know the loneliness, the fact that you had no infrastructure, no family infrastructure.
What was it like to take that decision, to leave your parents, to leave everything you knew, and then arrive with nothing?
[11:39:44]
NAVRATILOVA: It was a one-way ticket. And that was the hard part. I never knew if I would ever go back. If anything happened to my family, I couldn't go back. Or I could go back and I would not get out again.
So, it was a one-way street. And my parents couldn't come see me. So, it was -- that was rough.
EVERT: I thought it was remarkable that at that young of an age, you know, 16, 17 years old, she wanted to be number one in the world desperately.
She knew she had the talent -- all the talent in the world. And she made that decision herself to make that move because she knew if she moved to America, she could have the resources that she needed and she could achieve her goal. And she did. You know, you did.
AMANPOUR: And some.
EVERT: And I was going to say, and, you know, how many -- 18, you know, majors?
AMANPOUR: There's a picture in the doc. Honestly, it kind of broke my heart. You're hugging a pole after winning a match, a very -- one of the big matches that you won.
NAVRATILOVA: It was the first tournament I won.
AMANPOUR: There you go. And you're hugging a pole, and the narration is, well, I didn't have my family. I didn't have anybody.
NAVRATILOVA: I was alone, and I unexpectedly won the tournament, and then when I won, I wanted to hug somebody, but there was nobody that I knew there. So, I hugged a pole, white pole, right next to the umpire's chair.
AMANPOUR: How did you two become friends and was it normal -- not normal -- was it, did all players have friendships on the road?
NAVRATILOVA: Yes.
EVERT: Yes.
NAVRATILOVA: There was no teams.
EVERT: Well, let's put it this way. When we started out it was Billie Jean and Rosie and Martina and I and, you know, other players. And we were like the traveling band or traveling circus.
NAVRATILOVA: Yes.
EVERT: You know, we traveled together. We practiced together. We ate dinner together. We did press conferences together. We did everything together.
There's no coaches. There are no teams. We had -- there was no money to pay for, you know, a therapist and a physio and a coach. So we did everything together.
Marty and I practiced together before the finals of the French open.
AMANPOUR: I want to get to the other major connection between you two. Cancer also cropped up and attacked you both and brought you both together.
You had throat and breast cancer. You had ovarian cancer.
Full disclosure, I've been in this journey as well.
And how do -- how did you deal with it when it hit you?
EVERT: Well, the first thing I did was I called Billie Jean King and I said, do you -- can I have Christiane's phone number? Because I know that she's had it and I need to talk to somebody who's had that cancer. You have been great to me.
But I remember Martina calling me, you know, right away. We called each other. One of the first people we called were each other. And it just is ironic that we've had this journey in tennis and then all of a sudden get cancer at the same time and then twice, you know.
And she was there for me and I was there for her. And it -- again, it, it really helps to have somebody to talk to about it.
AMANPOUR: And in the doc, we see, you know, quite intense medical scenes. I mean, we see the intravenous, we see you guys going through the MRI and the CT scan and all the other things.
We see you, frankly, at your most vulnerable, more than you were ever, even when you lost on the court.
I guess you were comfortable, obviously, otherwise you wouldn't have let it, but why did you want to depict all that as well?
NAVRATILOVA: I think Chris was much more public about it. I kind of went into a hole when I was going through most of my treatment. I closed up. I even said to Julia, my wife, please go. I need to be alone. Just take care of me. I'm self-sufficient.
But I was getting a lot of support from everybody. Always had that phone call or text from Chris. I got lots of blankets from friends.
But I made it public only because I was supposed to be working, so it would have come out. And then after -- again, we were all about raising the --
AMANPOUR: Awareness.
NAVRATILOVA: -- awareness for people to get checked. Don't ignore any kind of signs and deal with it because it saved both of us, being proactive before the --
AMANPOUR: I feel that way too. Raise awareness wherever you can. Because let's face it, actually, women's cancers -- just women's medical problems, get short shrift compared --
NAVRATILOVA: As always.
AMANPOUR: -- to men when they go to the doctor.
EVERT: Yes. My story was a little different because I have my sister Jeannie too.
AMANPOUR: That's right.
EVERT: My sister died from ovarian cancer. And like two years before I was diagnosed with it.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
EVERT: And we both eventually had the BRCA gene. I had a hysterectomy. To be proactive to have it, not knowing I had cancer. I had cancer in my
ovaries and I had cancer in my fallopian tube.
So, for me, my sister saved my life, for sure. I wasn't feeling any different. Ok. So, I thought, people have to know about this BRCA gene. People have to know about genetic testing.
AMANPOUR: In the film, you do a reveal, all of a sudden, you're looking into the mirror and you take off your wig.
EVERT: Martina and I discussed this. If we're going to do a documentary --
NAVRATILOVA: It's got to be real.
[11:44:46]
EVERT: -- it's going to be full disclosure and it's going to be authentic.
And we have to get into the dirt, you know, and this is the reality. This is what happens. Take it off. Maybe it's a shock to some people, but it's like, this is what happens.
And I think we both have a great message. If any -- you feel anything wrong with your body, anything different, go get your blood work.
AMANPOUR: Thank you both so much. Chris Evert.
NAVRATILOVA: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: Martina Navratilova.
EVERT: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: An important message from two public figures who understand the devastating impact of cancer, but a reminder that it no longer has to be a death sentence with early detection and treatment.
So, as Chris and Martina say, don't ignore the warning signs. Listen to your body.
And the film, "The Final Set" will be available to stream on Netflix June 26th.
Coming up from the optimism of the post-Soviet era to the deep freeze of today. 35 years after Boris Yeltsin became president, a look back at my report from a moment when Europe and Russia believed a new era of cooperation was possible.
That's ahead.
[11:45:54]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: This week marks 35 years since Boris Yeltsin became the first democratically-elected president of Russia.
It was a moment of extraordinary change. The Soviet Union had collapsed. The economy was in crisis, and Mikhail Gorbachev's era of reform was drawing to a close. Gorbachev had won the hearts of the West when he lifted the Iron
Curtain, but many leaders were now looking to Yeltsin to shape Russia's future as he championed market reforms, privatization and a new relationship with the West.
Today, Europe's leaders are trying to establish a channel for dialog with President Putin as they search for a path to peace in Ukraine.
But the mood felt very different in 1992, when Yeltsin arrived here in Paris as the first leader of sovereign Russia to receive such a welcome since the pre-communist Czar Nicholas II, nearly a century earlier.
Here's my report from that historic trip.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: President Yeltsin demanded all the protocol and trappings of a full-blown state visit, or he said he simply wouldn't come to France. So Paris has rolled out the red carpet. French President Francois Mitterrand met Yeltsin at the airport.
The two countries' tricolores (ph), are fluttering together on the Champs Elysees and a mounted honor guard escorted Yeltsin's motorcade through the city.
For the French government, it's bending over backwards to make up for snubbing Yeltsin when he came here as president of the Russian parliament last April. Back then he got the cold shoulder from Mitterrand and a stiff rebuke in the European parliament for criticizing Mikhail Gorbachev.
JEAN PIERRE COT, FORMER MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (through translator): If you don't want us to say disagreeable things, then don't come to a democratic parliament. There's the door.
AMANPOUR: A few weeks later, Yeltsin became the first democratically- elected president of Russia, and the rest is history.
Now, he's trying to replace Gorbachev in the hearts and minds of Western leaders. He believes they hold the key to the success or failure of his radical reforms, which are under attack at home.
He hopes to get promises of food and other economic aid, and to discuss bilateral issues, including arms control.
Yeltsin has called on all five major nuclear powers to join the disarmament race, but it's unlikely that France will consider reducing its arsenal anytime soon, for it is still sticking strongly with the notion of nuclear deterrence.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Paris.
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AMANPOUR: A reminder of a very different era in so many ways, Yeltsin arrived in Paris talking about deeper cooperation and nuclear disarmament. Today, for the first time since the early days of the nuclear age, there are no nuclear agreements in place between Russia and the United States.
Yet even as the diplomatic divide deepens, recent polling suggests a majority of Russians favor peace talks with Ukraine over continuing this war.
When we come back, a masterpiece over 140 years in the making. Pope Leo marks a major milestone at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia Basilica as Gaudi's extraordinary vision becomes reality. That's after the break.
[11:53:57]
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AMANPOUR: And finally this week, it is one of the world's most distinctive churches by one of history's most visionary architects. But it's perhaps equally known for having been under construction for more than 140 years.
Well, now the Sagrada Familia, the Basilica of the Holy Family, is finally nearing completion, and this week it hosted a dazzling celebration which saw its towers illuminated by lights and fireworks.
And Pope Leo attended the inauguration to bless the brand-new central pinnacle, the Tower of Jesus Christ, the last major structural element to be installed. And incidentally, the one that has scored the church, the title of world's tallest.
The pontiff offered a different perspective on the basilica's long road to completion. Take a listen.
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POPE LEO XIV, CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): We do not, therefore, dwell in an unfinished work, but in a temple still under construction. The fact that it is incomplete is not a flaw, for it bears witness to a desire. It does not signify a shortcoming, but rather expresses a promise that we wish to honor with consistency.
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[11:59:49]
AMANPOUR: Now the festivities coincided with the 100-year anniversary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudi, whose image was projected into the skies during the show as though he were finally able to gaze upon his masterpiece.
That is all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at cnn.com/audio and on all other major platforms.
I'm Christiane Amanpour in Paris. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you again next week.
