Don Lemon Apologizes to CNN Staff After Nikki Haley Comments

CNN anchor Don Lemon called into a staff meeting Friday to apologize for calling former South Carolina governor and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley past her prime.

Lemon had the day off from CNN This Morning on Friday — a break that was scheduled before Thursday’s on-air dustup — but offered an apology to co-workers during a daily editorial call at the news network. Sources say he owned up to his badly chosen words and said he stands against sexism and racism. He also thanked his female colleagues. (TMZ first reported Lemon apologizing on the call.)

His apology Friday came a day after saying the 51-year-old Haley wasn’t “in her prime” after Haley, in announcing her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, said there should be a mental competency test for any politician over age 75 — something that would apply to both President Joe Biden and fellow Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” Lemon said on Thursday’s show. “A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. If you Google ‘when is a woman in her prime,’ it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s.”

Lemon’s comments visibly rankled co-anchor Poppy Harlow, who challenged Lemon’s comment on air. He didn’t walk them back during the show but later Thursday tweeted that his reference to a woman’s prime was “inartful and irrelevant.”

The reference I made to a woman’s “prime” this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age doesn't define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) February 16, 2023

CNN This Morning launched in November with Lemon, Harlow and Kaitlan Collins as its anchors. It replaced the news channel’s former morning show New Day in a bid by network head Chris Licht to grab a bigger piece of the morning news audience. Including a simulcast on sister network HLN, the show averages about 450,000 viewers each day and just under 100,000 in the key news demographic of adults 25-54. It trails cable rivals Fox and Friends and Morning Joe in both measures.

Lemon and Collins got crosswise earlier this month when Lemon appeared to critique an interview Collins did with Congressman James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee. The two also reportedly had an off-air argument in December.