break the news

Once he learned the show’s fate, Colbert said he was unsure about when he should break the news to his staff, debating whether to wait until after the summer break or in September.

Those who deliver the news can’t always break the news, even when it concerns themselves.

In April 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, it fell to Robert F. Kennedy to break the news to a largely Black crowd in Indianapolis.

"You knew at some point you were gonna need to strut into your family home and break the news to your family that you're gay."

He had to break the news to his brother.