CNN anchor Don Lemon admitted live on the air over the weekend that he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child.
The revelation came as he was interviewing three members of the congregation led by Eddie Long, who was recently accused of coercing four young men into sexual relationships.
“I have never admitted this on TV,” Lemon said. “I’m a victim of a pedophile when I was a kid. Someone who was much older than me.”
Lemon discussed his childhood after showing a video of one of the alleged victim’s lawyers explaining how Long may have made advances.
“Those are the things that they do,” Lemon said. “The language, ‘This doesn’t make you gay, if you do this…’ So when someone starts to say that, you start to perk and say, ‘ho,’ ” Lemon said.
Lemon again touched on his personal experience later in the interview: “The things these men were talking about, especially African American men don’t want to talk about . . . I couldn’t tell my mom that until I was 30 years old.”
Later on Twitter, he wrote, “I had no idea I’d say that on national TV. It just came out. Sadly, it’s the truth for so many young men.”
