Don Lemon bitterly complain about the way CNN unceremoniously kicked him out after 17 years of service.
The gay journalist on Monday, April 24, 2023, took to Twitter to announce that he was terminated from his anchor role at CNN.
Lemon said that he was informed by his agent that he was being terminated.
“I am stunned after 17 years at CNN I would have thought someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon wrote in part.
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) April 24, 2023
The decision by CNN to fire Lemon comes amid an exposé by Variety earlier this month on allegations that Lemon mistreated his female colleagues over the course of his career there.
The Variety report published on April 5th alleged that Lemon has a long history of questionable behavior toward women.
The report was based on more than a dozen former and current colleagues who described Lemon as openly hostile to women at the network.
Most of the sources spoke anonymously to the outlet.
Lemon first came under fire in February during a segment on ‘CNN This Morning’ in which he remarked that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, was no longer in her ‘prime’.
The comment was made while discussing a suggestion by Haley that candidates over the age of 75 should be subjected to mental competency exams.
“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s,” Lemon said.
When pushed by co-anchor Poppy Harlow, Lemon told her not to “shoot the messenger.”
Licht told employees that Lemon agreed to partake in training following public backlash to his comments.
Lemon has been with CNN since 2006, joining the network after anchoring at NBC Chicago and working as a correspondent for NBC News, the “TODAY” show and “NBC Nightly News.”
