CNN anchor Don Lemon is facing heat after several of his former and current colleagues opened up about their experience with him, saying he has shown misogynistic behavior. Lemon’s colleagues came forward in an article published by Variety.
According to the report, Nancy Grace and Soledad O’Brien are among the women Lemon disrespected. The report also indicates that the anchor called one of his producers “fat” to her face.
One source said Grace thinks Lemon is “an ass” and he was always “rude, dismissive and really unfamiliar with the [news] content being discussed.”
“Don was kind of volatile and didn’t say good things about women,” another source told Variety.
Two other witnesses said Lemon was offended at one point because he wasn’t “front and center” of a “high-profile” project. That’s when he allegedly suggested that O’Brien isn’t Black in retaliation.
“Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic and inaccurate things, so it sounds pretty on brand for him,” O’Brien told Variety.
A CNN spokesperson also responded to the allegations.
“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,” the spokesperson told Variety. “But Don denies making any related remark in a derogatory way.”
Lemon is also accused of sending threatening texts to his former co-anchor Kyra Phillips while she was on an assignment in Iraq. The CNN anchor allegedly wanted to cover the assignment himself.
“Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it,” Lemon allegedly said in the text.
