Don Lemon Claims He Was Assaulted, Harrased While At CNN
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon made a startling revelation on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, claiming he was subjected to sexual harassment by both men and women while working at the network.
Lemon, who was dismissed from CNN in 2023, recounted multiple instances of inappropriate conduct during his tenure, sharing his experiences in the podcast’s Sunday episode.
“I remember when I was in Atlanta and I was in the cafeteria—commissary, whatever—at CNN, and this woman, young lady, tweaked my nipples and said, ‘Oh, it’s cold in here.’ And I said, ‘Okay, you realize if I did that, they’d be walking me out the door right now,’” Lemon recalled in his conversation with Maher.
“But I didn’t—I didn’t care. I didn’t go to HR. I didn’t say anything because I… it was just like—it’s a double standard,” he added.
Lemon went on to share another previously undisclosed incident. “I’ve never told this story before. Someone I worked with also harassed me at CNN, and I never went to management. It was a woman, and she knew I was gay. It was bizarre—she was going through a divorce, and it was just weird,” he revealed.
“I never went to management. I thought, ‘Okay, they may find a way to get rid of me because if I told the story, I don’t know if they’re going to believe me or not,'” Lemon continued. “But then she was so mean to me after that, I was like—I should have told the story.”
Without disclosing any names, Lemon described how the harassment often took place at work-related social events rather than in the newsroom itself.
“We were at a restaurant and they were drinking, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, look at you. You’ve lost weight, you look so hot,’” Lemon recounted.
Maher pressed Lemon on whether he felt these experiences were taken seriously. Lemon responded, “It works both ways.”
When asked if such behavior was commonplace in the industry, Lemon acknowledged that inappropriate conduct was prevalent. “It was not in the office but yeah, it’s all… won’t go that far. So you had to be with her in certain business occasions, with, outside the office, like at a cocktail party, places like that,” he explained.
During his time at CNN, Lemon became a prominent figure, hosting Don Lemon Tonight and co-anchoring CNN This Morning. He was with the network from 2006 until 2023, when his controversial remarks on-air and alleged workplace behavior contributed to his firing.
Lemon made headlines for an expletive-laden rant in December, mocking the outrage from the MAGA community over H1-B visas for specialized workers.
Criticizing Trump supporters, he lambasted what he called their “stupid MAGA brain” for being shocked by Elon Musk’s support of H1-B visa programs, as reported by the New York Post.
“Oh my gosh, I love this. Now you’re finding out, you dumb f–king idiots. Now you’re just figuring this sh— out. You’re so f–king stupid, and you deserve it. And you f–king deserve it because you’re so dumb,” Lemon said in his tirade.
“You have been co-opted because you’re in a f–king cult and you don’t even realize it because you have stupid MAGA brain, and you don’t get it. How stupid and dumb are you?” he continued.
Lemon was also widely ridiculed— including by then-CNN president Jeff Zucker— in 2014 after he speculated on-air that missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 might have been consumed by a black hole. He even suggested that some “supernatural” event could have been responsible for the disappearance of the aircraft, which was never recovered.
“Don’t don’t be an idiot,” Zucker reportedly remarked, according to a profile published in The New Yorker Magazine.