Fired CNN prime-time host Don Lemon will reportedly receive about $24.5 million as part of his severance agreement with the news network, nearly a year after his exit.
The settlement is equal to the amount Lemon, 57, would have been paid if he had been allowed to remain at CNN until the end of his 3 1/2-year contract from the time of his termination. The Wrap reported.
Lemon was fired from CNN in April after a brief but checkered stint as morning show co-host by then-CEO Chris Licht, who later replaced him as well. I was fired.
Lemon’s firing comes just two months after Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was forced to apologize after saying on air that as a woman over 50, she was past her “prime years.”
The veteran anchor said at the time that he was blindsided by the unscrupulous firing. He learned about it from his agent, he claimed.
“Having worked at CNN for 17 years, I am stunned. I would have thought someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon wrote on social media.
“There was never any indication that I wouldn’t be able to continue doing the work I love at the network,” he added. “It’s clear there are some larger issues at play.”
Lemon is currently preparing to launch his own show, The Don Lemon Show, on Elon Musk’s X platform in the coming weeks.
