Don Lemon Fired from CNN: ‘I Am Stunned’

Don Lemon said Monday he was “stunned” to learn he has been fired from CNN.

“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN,” Lemon said in a statement posted to Twitter. “I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”

CNN refuted Lemon’s account in a statement on Twitter: “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”

CNN Ceo Chris Licht confirmed Lemon’s exit in a statement: “Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

Licht added that CNN is “committed” to the “success” of CNN This Morning, which Lemon had co-anchored with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow for the past six months after he lost his coveted primetime spot. There had reportedly been tension between Lemon and his two female coworkers on the show for months. The New York Post reported in December that Lemon previously loudly confronted Collins in front of other staff, telling her she was interrupting him too often on-air.

Lemon’s ouster comes weeks after a Variety exposé claimed the anchor had a history of threatening his female colleagues and making provocative and erratic comments.

He was forced to undergo “formal training” in recent weeks after an on-air comment about 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. When Haley announced her presidential bid, she suggested politicians over 75 years old should be required to pass mental competency tests.

Amid a discussion of Haley’s proposal, Lemon suggested Haley herself isn’t in her prime: “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”

Harlow immediately pushed back on the comments saying, “What are you talking … wait … are you talking about ‘prime’ for child bearing? Or are you talking about ‘prime’ for being president?”

Lemon spoke over Harlow to say, “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it.”

But according to Variety, Lemon’s recent controversies on CNN This Morning are just the tip of the iceberg.

Lemon reportedly terrorized his then-colleague Kyra Phillips when she was given a high-profile reporting gig in Iraq that he wanted from himself. While Phillips was reporting in Iraq, Lemon tore up pictures and notes on top of and inside Phillips’ desk in the news pod they shared, according to the Variety report

Phillips reportedly received threatening texts from an unknown source after she returned from Iraq. “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it,” the text read, according to the report.

A human resources investigation ultimately traced two threatening messages back to Lemon. He was then demoted from his position co-anchoring a weekday show with Phillips to a weekend show.

When the Variety report was published earlier this month, CNN initially defended Lemon. The network told National Review in a statement at the time that Variety “provides no actual proof, and instead relies on anonymous sources and unsubstantiated claims from 10 to 15 years ago. CNN is unable to corroborate the alleged accounts.”

Other allegations in the report include that Lemon called one of his female producers fat to her face and that he mocked Nancy Grace on air by mimicking her. Lemon also allegedly dated a 22-year-old male staffer, while Lemon was 41 at the time.

In another alleged act of professional jealousy, Lemon claimed on an editorial call of roughly 30 staffers that colleague Soledad O’Brien wasn’t black after she was named the host of CNN’s Black in America docuseries. And despite Lemon being assigned the coveted job of covering Michael Jackson’s funeral from within the Staples Center, he allegedly complained that Anderson Cooper was receiving more airtime.

He also had a reputation of being a less-than-stellar worker, according to the report, which claims he regularly skipped editorial calls and came late to the newsroom.

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