Former CNN host Don Lemon revealed on Sunday’s episode of Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast that he experienced sexual harassment from both men and women while working for CNN.
He told Marher there was a moment when a woman allegedly touched him inappropriately at the CNN cafeteria in Atlanta.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “There are some really bad things, but not all at Harvey Weinstein level.”
“This young woman tweaked my nipples and said, ‘Oh, it’s cold here.’ I said, “OK, if I do, will they now walk me through the door?” ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6yxgyrifdu
The 59-year-old host said, “I don’t care about going to HR” and “I say nothing because it’s a double standard.”
Maher appears to agree, admitting that it was not a situation that Lemon could easily deal with at the time.
Long-standingly openly gay Lemon said this was not an isolated incident.
He said he attended a work event on CNN with a female colleague and drank some drinks. Ride-sharing services like Uber were not available at the time, so he said he accepted her offer to stay in her spare room. He implied that she saw this as an opportunity and tried to sleep with him despite knowing that he was gay.
“I’ve never told this story, and the people I worked with also harassed me on CNN. And I’ve never been to the management team,” Lemon told Maher.
“First of all, I’m so new there. She knew I was gay. It was just weird. She was going through a divorce…it was weird,” he said. “It was just weird.”
New Orleans, Louisiana – February 7: American television journalist Don Lemon arrives at Shaku’s delightful home at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 7, 2025. (Photo: Skip Bolen/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – December 8: Don Lemon will be participating in CNN Hero at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on December 8, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images at Warnermedia)
“Okay, I thought they might find a way to get rid of me because if I told this story, I don’t know if they’ll believe me,” he said on the podcast. “But after that, she was very mean to me, and I was like, ‘I should have told the story.’ ” (Related: Report: Just-excavated audio capture Jonathan Major admits his ex-girlfriend “attacked”)
Lemon declined to name the woman he mentioned during the interview.
Daily callers contacted CNN for comments and had not received a response as of Tuesday afternoon.
