CNN's Don Lemon Purchased a "Quaint Cottage" for Millions
Updated Feb. 1 2024, 4:58 p.m. ET
CNN host Don Lemon was with the network for 17 years, from September 2006 to April 2023. He hosted CNN Tonight With Don Lemon starting in 2014. In May 2021, he announced that his show would be ending with more news to come, but that was too much for fans to handle. He had to come back online to clarify that the show was just being rebranded as Don Lemon Tonight. He transitioned to CNN This Morning in November of 2022, and was fired from CNN in April of 2023.
The uproar surrounding the name change of his show shows just how successful he was — and he's got the net worth to prove it. After being on the network for years, he made a lot of money and isn't afraid to spend it. He's had homes worth millions and just bought a bigger space.
What is Don Lemon's net worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Don is worth $12 million. His 17-year-run at CNN is where he generated most of his wealth.
What was Don Lemon's salary at CNN?
According to Yahoo News, Don made about $4 million a year while he was working at CNN. Before he was fired, he had signed a $7 million a year contract that was supposed to last until 2026.
Don's CNN profile says his career started at WNYW in New York. He was a news assistant while he was a student at Brooklyn College studying broadcast journalism. Even though he's based in New York, he's worked all over the east coast in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Louisiana. On top of his successful news career, he's a New York Times bestselling author and he's an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College.
Why was Don Lemon fired from CNN?
The network did not reveal a specific reason for firing Don, according to AP News. However, just a few months earlier, Don had been under fire for an off-color comment he made about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. During a CNN This Morning segment, he said that Nikki was "past her prime," saying a woman was only in her prime "in her 20s, 30s, and maybe her 40s".
Don later apologized on Twitter, saying that he regretted his "inartful" comments. But it seemed that the damage had already been done. This wasn't the first of his misogynistic comments. He once said that the men's US soccer team should be paid more than the women's team because he thought they were "more interesting to watch".
Don sold a home in Harlem for millions.
Back in February 2021, The L.A. Times reported that Don sold his Harlem, NY condo for $1.525 million. He originally bought it in 2013 for about $37,000 less than he sold it for.
The New York Post reports that a spy said Don and his fiancé, Tim Malone, outgrew the NYC condo. "They love the neighborhood and are staying, but they outgrew the space." It seems like he made the sale because he's got a new place in the Hamptons. The article says that he also paid $3.1 million for a "quaint cottage" in Sag Harbor in 2016.
Just a few years ago, he had a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. Apparently, he was buying up the units around it to combine them all and sold that apartment for $969,000 in 2017.
When Don and Tim got engaged, they started looking for a bigger space so that they could start a family. In a March 2021 interview with Tamron Hall, Don said that he's thinking about it. "Yes, I'm thinking about starting a family," he said. They want to make sure they're married first though and are waiting until the pandemic is over to have a wedding.
"So we're thinking about, do we want to adopt, do we want to go through surrogacy, how we want to do it. Tim is definitely going to have to be the one that to have the kid," he joked, "Because his younger his body will bounce back."
