CNN bad boy Don Lemon just can’t catch a break as an extensive new report details serious allegations from the anchor’s past including making rude remarks about female colleagues as well as bullying behavior and that he sent “threatening” text messages to former cohost Kyra Phillips that left her “rattled,” revelations that come after the embattled anchor recently came under fire for his misogynistic attitude.
According to the brutal expose published by Variety, the “diva-like” Lemon body-shamed a female producer whom he called “fat,” mocked Nancy Grace while on the air, and suggested that Soledad O’Brien wasn’t really black during an editorial call attended by over two dozen staffers in the incidents from the late 2000s, which if true, would be evidence of a pattern of unsavory behavior dating far back and well before his recent dustup with his “CNN This Morning” cohosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.
In what may be the most disturbing allegation, Lemon reportedly threw a snit when in 2008, Phillips was chosen for a high-profile assignment to go to Iraq over him, with his “antipathy” toward his “Live From” weekday show being so “concerning” that it “had many members of the close-knit Atlanta news team on edge,” according to the unnamed sources who dished the dirt to the celebrity news outlet.
The two sources told Variety that Lemon “vented his disappointment at being passed over by tearing up pictures and notes on top of and inside Phillips’ desk in the news pod they shared,” but things took a turn for the worse after she returned from Iraq.
Don Lemon reportedly threatened his colleague with an anonymous phone number in 2008 because he was jealous CNN sent her on assignment in Iraq.https://t.co/e15dwUCFCa pic.twitter.com/QirGQorbxQ
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) April 5, 2023
“One night while dining with members of the news team, she received the first of two threatening text messages from an unknown number on her flip phone that warned, ‘Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it.’ Phillips was visibly rattled and quickly enlisted CNN’s higher-ups to identify the sender,” the report details, with the slighted anchor appearing to have used a burner phone.
“Remarkably, the texts were traced back to Lemon, according to those same sources. A human resources investigation was launched, and while the findings were never disclosed to the growing pool of staffers who were aware of the situation,” the outlet reported, adding that Lemon was abruptly yanked from his co-anchor spot with Phillips and moved to the weekends in an obvious demotion. It appeared to be the last time that he shared co-anchor duties with a woman until he was teamed with Harlow and Collins after being demoted from his primetime spot last year.
Lemon’s insulting take on former South Carolina governer, US ambassador to the UN, and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley rankled his cohosts who clashed with him on-air and, according to reports, Harlow stormed off the set in anger over his sexist remarks.
CNN's Don Lemon got personal when he criticized Nikki Haley's comments calling for competency tests for politicians over 75 years old — an apparent shot at Trump, 76, and Biden, 80.
"Haley isn’t in her prime.," he said. "A woman is in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s." pic.twitter.com/rJrTTnMPRB
— POLITICO (@politico) February 16, 2023
A CNN spokesperson reacted to the bombshell report, “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.”
Phillips, who now works for ABC declined to provide comment to Variety.
In addition to his menacing of Phillips, Lemon “mocked Grace on air by mimicking her, shocking fellow colleagues,” who were aghast at his behavior.
Grace also declined to comment but Variety cites a person who is close to her as saying that “she thinks he’s an ass” and that he was always “rude, dismissive and really unfamiliar with the [news] content being discussed.”
“That was the beginning of when you knew that Don was kind of volatile and didn’t say good things about women,” says a witness to the Grace incident,” according to the report.
Lemon was also angry that O’Brien was tabbed to host the cable news network’s high-profile docuseries, “Black in America” which debuted in 2008, going off during a call attended by around 30 people that O’Brien wasn’t black, two witnesses who “found the characterization wildly offensive” recounted.
“Don always wanted to be front and center on anything high profile, especially anything involving race,” a colleague told Variety.
O’Brien, who wasn’t present when Lemon insulted her told the outlet that “Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic and inaccurate things, so it sounds pretty on brand for him.”
“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,” the CNN spokesperson said.
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