Don Lemon responds to exposé detailing alleged 'misogynist' behavior at CNN: 'Patently false'
Don Lemon is hitting back at Variety's exposé, calling claims of his "sexist" behavior at CNN "patently false."
On Wednesday, the outlet published a report examining Lemon's alleged questionable antics since he was hired by CNN in 2006. The article, titled "Don Lemon's Misogyny at CNN, Exposed: Malicious Texts, Mocking Female Co-Workers and 'Diva-Like Behavior,'" featured interviews with multiple unnamed sources. One of the more troubling accusations claimed that in 2008, he anonymously threatened his co-anchor when she got a high-profile assignment he wanted.
"The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip," a spokesperson for Lemon tells Yahoo Entertainment. "It's amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless."
CNN is responding to specific allegations in the article as well.
Variety cited two sources who claimed Lemon was enraged 15 years ago after his Live From co-host, Kyra Phillips, was put on assignment in Iraq instead of him. Lemon allegedly tore "up pictures and notes on top of and inside Phillips's desk in the news pod they shared," the article alleges. When Phillips returned from Iraq, she purportedly received a text from an unknown number that said, "Now you've crossed the line, and you're going to pay for it." CNN launched an investigation and the texts were supposedly traced back to Lemon, according to the same sources.
"Don says the incident never occurred and that he was never notified of any investigation. CNN cannot corroborate the alleged events from 15 years ago," a network spokesperson tells Yahoo.
Some of Lemon's past co-workers went on the record to call him out. Goldie Taylor, a former CNN consultant who appeared on Lemon's weekend show, claimed she was banned for speaking out against the anchor after he made controversial comments about the Black community.
"I'm never surprised when Don gets in trouble," she told Variety. "It makes me neither happy nor sad to see him undermine his own success. There was a time when it appeared that Black people were most often the subject of his ire. Now, it seems to me that when he says something offensive, there's almost always a woman on the other side."
A CNN rep tells Yahoo: "I'm not going to weigh in on the network’s booking practices of unpaid guests a decade ago."
The article also highlighted the Jussie Smollett controversy. In 2021, it was revealed that Lemon texted Smollett two years prior that the Chicago Police Department did not believe the Empire star was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. But was Lemon warning Smollett, or trying to get information to break on Don Lemon Tonight? Although one source told Variety that Lemon "should have been benched" amid the network's investigation, CNN is standing by its on-air star.
"CNN reviewed the incident in question at the time and found that any interaction was an act of journalism as Don was attempting to prompt a response from Mr. Smollett and book him for his show," the spokesperson notes on Wednesday.
Finally, the last anecdote the network is responding to involves former CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. Variety claimed that Lemon spoke derogatorily of his colleague on an editorial call more than a decade ago. Lemon was allegedly upset that O'Brien was tapped to host CNN's Black in America docuseries, and in front of roughly 30 employees, suggested that O'Brien isn't even Black.
"Don, Soledad, and others, have in the past correctly referred to her Afro-Cuban heritage as it is a unique part of her personal story. But Don denies making any related remark in a derogatory way," a rep for CNN says.
Although O'Brien wasn't on the editorial call in question, she made her feelings about Lemon clear. "Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic and inaccurate things, so it sounds pretty on brand for him," she told Variety.
Lemon found himself in the news frequently over the past several months. He was sidelined in February for declaring that 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley "isn't in her prime." He made "sexist" remarks about the U.S. women's soccer team in February, and it's been speculated he's not getting along with his CNN This Morning co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. After the Haley incident, Yahoo confirmed Lemon will undergo "formal training" provided by CNN, but specifics were not disclosed.
