James Longman Biography
James Longman is the Chief International correspondent for ABC News based in the London bureau. He reports for Good Morning America, World News Tonight and Nightline. He is known for his coverage on global conflicts and human rights issues. He has reported from over 60 countries,including conflict zones in Ukraine, Syria and Israel.
His career in journalism began as an accident. His mother being part Lebanese he wanted to spend some time in the Middle East to connect with his heritage. He kept going back and forth to Syria and as it happened he was in the right place at the right time when Syria civil war began in 2011. This made it possible to access stories that other journalists couldn’t.
His first report was about a father who had witnessed the shooting of his son by the Assad regime. James always wanted to build a career where he could document the extraordinary relationships human being have with each other as he had had a tough time growing up. His father took his own life and he had a complex relationship with his mother.
James Longman Age, Height, Early Life
Longman was born on was born on December 28, 1986 in London, England as an only child of John Longman and Ann Longman. His parents separated when he was three years old. His father died when he was nine. He studied at a boarding school which he says was a decision by his mother despite it being hard on her side to provide him with more stability.
He stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch tall. He was raised bilingual in French and English and speaks Arabic.
Education Background
He attended SOAS University of London where he studied Bachelor of Arts degree in Arabic graduating in 2010. He also holds a Master of Science in Comparative Politics (Conflict) from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
James Longman Parents
James was the only child of John Longman and Ann Longman. His parents divorced when he was three years old. His father was an artist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He killed himself at the age of 51 by setting his house on fire and jumping out of the window.
Grandparents
James grandparents Gabriella Sawaya and Harold Claridge met in Cairo in the early 1940’s. His grandmother was a Lebanese living in Cairo while his grandfather was from NewZeland. The couple met at the wedding of King of Egypt. At the time Harold was a Kiwi officer posted to North Africa to fight with the ANZACS (The Australian and New Zealand Army Corp).
Harold was later sent to Alamein in northern Egypt. He would go back to Cairo when on leave and they courted over the next few years. They got married in 1944 at the Helipolis Basilica in Cairo at the end of the war and in 1945 they had James’s mother, Ann Longman.
After Harold was decommissioned he returned to being an architect and brought his family to Libya, Iraq where he was involved in the construction of the palace in Baghdad. They then moved to Lebanon. In the 1970’s he was able to relocate the family to England due to his NewZeland passport and war record where they lived until they died.
Is James Longman Married?
Longman married his husband Alex Branna in 2022 after being engaged for a little over two years. Alex works in the marketing industry. He has worked for Tiffany & Co. as a Client Advisor; Univer as a global social media manager;Open as head of marketing; Santander UK on several positions including employer branding lead, product manager, relationship manager. In addition, he was the head of marketing in UK & Ireland for HDI Global SE.
In addition to his career in the business world, he hosted a podcast ‘The One That Got a Gay’, which focused on the lives of LGBTQ+ people who came out later in life.
James is Openly Gay
James is openly gay. He first came out to a friend when he was 16. He came out to his mother at the age of 24 via an email.
In 2019 he traveled to Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic which is part of the Russian Federation where he covered LGBT people brutal persecution at the hands of government. The people shared their stories of being arrested through abductions and being subjected to beatings, electric shock, waterboarding among other abuses. The authorities however, denied all the accusations.
He spoke with Apti Alaudinov, the head of police in Chechnya who asked if any of them was gay and first James lied but after they visited one of the prisons he told him he was gay. He had no issues with him being gay but he added that he wouldn’t like to be his friend.
“There is no problem. Nobody has any issues with you. You are a guest. Come here as a guest and leave from here as a guest,” he said. “You don’t understand something: You can say anything about us — any horror stories — but I, as [the] head of Chechen Police, I don’t have a goal to see who you are and what your sexual orientation is. I am not interested to know it. It’s your life and you should live however you want. But at the same time, don’t teach us how we have to live.”
James Longman ABC News
James joined ABC News in June 2017 as a foreign correspondent before being promoted to chief international correspondent based in London in November 2024. He has coverage of international events includes; the fight against ISIS on the Syrian front line, confronting Chechen authorities about abuses against LGBTQ+ people, terror attacks across Europe, war in Gaza, anti-war protest in Moscow. He is also part of ABC’s royal coverage, he covered the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth as well as the coronation of King Charles.
Prior to joining ABC News, he worked as a Beirut correspondent and a general news reporter for BBC. His coverage ranged from terrorist attacks across Europe, mental health issues and adolescent drug use.
He began his career as a print journalist based in Syria. He embedded with activist networks as the protest movement developed. He also helped arrange access for news organizations.
Career Highlights
- He was in Moscow when Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and spent a month reporting from the Russian capital. He then spent more than 12 weeks in Ukraine and was one of the first reporters to see firsthand the horrors in Bucha.
- He was the first U.S. network reporter at the Thai cave where the soccer team went missing and was the first to interview them after their rescue.
- He was the first to do a television interview with American ISIS bride Huda Mothana in Syria.
- He covered the the National Geographic special “Virus Hunters,” in which he traveled around the world to meet front-line researchers working to stop the next pandemic. The coverage aired in 173 countries in over 40 languages.
- During the coronavirus crisis, he traveled to over 15 countries covering the unfolding pandemic.
- He covered Chechnya’s prosecution of LGBTQ+ people which won him the David Bloom award and a Deadline Club award from the Society of Professional Journalists.
- He co-anchored ABC News Live’s coverage of the October 7 Hamas attack which won him a News Emmy.
James Longman Awards
- News Emmys for his climate crisis in India and Ukraine reporting.
- David Bloom award from the Radio and Television Correspondents Association (RTCA) for his investigative work on LGBTQ+ abuses in Chechnya.
- Deadline Club award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work in Chechnya.
James Longman Book
Longman is the author of his memoir “The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness.” The book is his research on whether metal health locked in the DNA and whether trauma could be passed down genetically and how to prevent it.
His curiousity was sparked after knowing his father was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia and committed suicide at the age of 51. His paternal grandfather had also ended his life. His uncle James, his father’s brother, also had schizophrenia.
He also had depression in his early 20’s while struggling with his sexuality and his career. He even thought of walking into traffic but was rescued by a friend.
His findings are the focus of his memoir. He learnt that “these are ‘polygenic disorders,’ meaning they’re caused by the combined action of multiple genes, not just one gene. And these diseases are also often influenced by environmental factors, such as nutrition, exercise, and environmental exposures.”
James Longman Salary/ Net worth
Longman’s actual salary is not public but according to Glassdor, the estimated annual salary for ABC News Correspondent is $104,471. His estimated net worth is $1 million.