After catching some serious heat earlier this week for claiming 51-year-old politician Nikki Haley wasn’t in “her prime”, CNN host Don Lemon has reportedly been axed from the network’s morning show line-up for this Monday, February 20.
The 56-year-old anchor was co-hosting CNN This Morning on Thursday when he reacted to Haley’s comments on the age of politicians.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable,” Lemon said during the live broadcast. “I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, when a woman is in her prime is in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
The morning show’s other hosts, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, later left the set after Lemon’s age-shaming comments — an act that was originally played off as a “well-timed” bathroom break.
Lemon ended up giving a halfhearted apology during an editorial phone conference on Friday morning, confessing that he was “sorry” and that he didn’t “mean to hurt” or to “offend anyone.”
He also tried to walk back his original comments explaining, “What I said came out wrong and I wish I hadn’t said it. I believe women of any age can do anything they set their minds to. The people I am closest to in this organization are women.”
Apparently, the relationship between the three co-hosts have been “smoldering for months,” according to insiders.
One source close to the matter told Confider there are serious “ongoing conversations about Don’s future,” hinting at the CNN personality losing more than just his seat at the morning table. The insider went on to call the primetime anchor a “constant distraction.”
“He has a colossal ego and he’s the kind of person who goes around saying he’s not going to take the fall for his show flopping, it’s not his fault and the network’s tanking, and they shouldn’t have pushed him out of his primetime slot,” they continued.