Former CNN host Don Lemon dropped a bombshell on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, alleging that he experienced sexual harassment from both men and women during his time at the network.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, detailed several instances of inappropriate behavior he endured during his tenure, sharing his account on the 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 told 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,” Lemon said.
He then proceeded to tell of another 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 explained.
“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,’” the former CNN host went on. “But then she was so mean to me after that, I was like—I should have told the story.”
Without naming anyone, Lemon described the harassment as occurring in professional settings outside the newsroom, such as cocktail parties and other work-related events.
“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 recalled.
Maher challenged Lemon on whether he believed these experiences were being taken seriously. Lemon responded, “It works both ways.”
When Maher asked if these incidents were common in the industry, Lemon admitted that inappropriate behavior was widespread. “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 said.
Lemon gained prominence during his tenure at CNN, where he hosted Don Lemon Tonight and co-anchored CNN This Morning. He worked at the network from 2006 until 2023 when controversies over his on-air remarks and reported workplace behavior led to his dismissal.
Lemon sparked controversy with a mocking, expletive-filled tirade about the MAGA world uproar over H1-B visas for specialized workers in December.
Lemon ridiculed Trump supporters, deriding what he called their “stupid MAGA brain,” and criticized them for being caught off guard by DOGE head Elon Musk’s backing of H1-B visa programs, the New York Post reported.
“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 railed.
“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?” the Lemon hysteria continued.
Famously, Lemon was widely mocked — including by then-CNN boss Jeff Zucker — in the fall of 2014 when he suggested, on-air, that missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was swallowed up by a black hole. He also suggested that something “supernatural” could have happened to the flight, the wreckage of which was never found.
“Don’t don’t be an idiot,” Zucker reportedly said, according to a profile piece published in The New Yorker Magazine.