Report Puts The Squeeze On Lemon And He Is Pissed

CNN’s Don Lemon is reportedly weighing a possible lawsuit over a bombshell expose in Variety that alleged he has a history of threatening and demeaning female colleagues such as Soledad O’Brien, Kyra Phillips and Nancy Grace, reports The NY Post..

The embattled “CNN This Morning” co-host, who recently got into hot water over making sexist on-air comments, is “apoplectic” about Variety’s report and has “consulted attorneys about a possible lawsuit” against the entertainment publication, Insider reported Wednesday.

A source close to Lemon said that he’s outwardly “playing it cool,” and that CNN’s defense of the anchor in the press shows that they are “standing behind him.”

“They’ve known for years,” added a second media source, referring to CNN. “Lemon is not going to sue because then they’d have to depose people and more stuff could come out.”

Variety reported Wednesday that Lemon — who sparked outrage in February when he declared that 51-year-old GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime” — engaged in disrespectful, “diva-like” behavior often directed at his female co-workers.

The report alleged that the 57-year-old Lemon allegedly called a female producer fat to her face, accused O’Brien of not being black, and sent Phillips a menacing text message because he was jealous in 2008.

In 2008, while working as co-anchor of CNN’s “Live From,” Lemon was passed over for Phillips to cover the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.  Enraged, he allegedly vented his jealousy by ripping up pictures and leaving them on Phillips’ desk, two sources who worked at CNN at the time told the outlet.

CNN conducted an investigation into the text, removed Lemon from his co-anchoring duties alongside Phillips, and demoted him to weekends, according to Variety.