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Fired CNN anchor Don Lemon is leaving the community with at the least $25 million — however has nonetheless lawyered up for a possible authorized battle along with his former employer, Web page Six has completely confirmed.
Lemon, the 51-year-old former co-host of “CNN This Morning,” had signed a excessive $7 million-a-year contract with CNN in September that runs till 2026, sources stated.
In the meantime, Lemon has employed high-powered Los Angeles leisure lawyer Bryan Freedman to safe his exit and probe whether or not the previous anchor is entitled to an additional settlement, Web page Six is instructed.
Freedman, co-founder of the legislation agency Freedman & Taitelman LLP, can be representing Lemon’s former CNN colleague Chris Cuomo — who stays in arbitration with CNN and is demanding $125 million for being fired. Cuomo was canned in 2021 for advising his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through the latter’s public scandals.
A supply with information of Lemon’s deal at CNN stated: “Don was signed on a excessive seven-figure deal for the morning present final September, and is assured by CNN he shall be paid the rest of his contract, which runs till 2026.
“He has retained lawyer Bryan Freedman to conclude this deal, and in addition to analyze if Don may very well be eligible to additional damages surrounding the circumstances of his exit.”
Cuomo stays in litigation with the community and claims he was entitled to a staggering $125 million payout as a result of CNN allegedly defamed him on his means out the door. He known as his termination by the scandal-scarred information outlet “the epitome of hypocrisy,” in line with the authorized papers.
In a scorched-earth submitting with the JAMS mediation and arbitration service filed in 2022, Cuomo alleged that his former employer “has a long-established sample and apply of selectively imposing its insurance policies based mostly on cynical calculations of public notion.”
The dramatic information of Lemon’s firing was introduced by the anchor himself, who tweeted that the community knowledgeable his agent that he had been let go as an alternative of executives telling him immediately.
CNN then launched a press release denying Lemon’s declare, saying: “Don Lemon’s assertion about this morning’s occasions is inaccurate. He was supplied a chance to satisfy with administration however as an alternative launched a press release on Twitter.”
Lemon has been the topic of controversy since his morning present debuted late final yr. Earlier this month, CNN boss Chris Licht admitted that the previous primetime star has been a “lightning rod” for controversy — days after a damning report in Selection alleged years of “diva-like” and misogynistic habits by Lemon.
Lemon has employed former CNN flack Allison Gollust as his disaster spokesperson following his ouster. Gollust’s affair together with her then-CNN boss Jeff Zucker was uncovered within the wake of Cuomo’s firing, and each she and Zucker swiftly departed the community.
Gollust and Zucker conspired for years to maintain their “open secret” affair quiet with “an online of lies,” The Publish reported in 2022. Gollust repeatedly instructed feminine reporters they had been “sexist” and “misogynistic” for asking if she was sleeping together with her boss, at the same time as the 2 carried on their trysts.
An insider added, “There isn't any irony misplaced on anybody within the media that Gollust — who lined up her personal affair by attacking reporters who dared to ask her about her relationship with Zucker as sexist and misogynists — is now representing Lemon amid his accusations of bullying feminine colleagues. Don wants to search out somebody to symbolize him who has some grasp of the reality.”
Gollust didn’t remark, nor did Lemon’s agent. Freedman didn’t reply and CNN didn’t instantly get again to Web page Six.