Inside The Rumored Drama Between CNN's Kaitlan Collins And Former Co-Host Don Lemon

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins has earned the reputation of being a hard-hitting reporter, most notably with her presidential election coverage. Collins interviewed Donald Trump in 2023, where she countered his claims of voter fraud stemming from the previous election. She also interviewed Donald Trump Jr. in 2024, where she pushed back on his assertion that the media had contributed to the attacks on his father.

But for many people, it was the story of her interaction with former CNN host Don Lemon that put Collins on their radar. According to the New York Post, an incident occurred on the set of "CNN This Morning," the show once hosted by Collins, Lemon, and Poppy Harlow. Lemon confronted Collins off the air, upset that she had interrupted him during a live segment.

Lemon supposedly screamed at Collins, causing the shaken reporter to run out of the studio. But that wasn't the first time that a situation between Lemon and Collins made the news.

Don Lemon got into a debate with Kaitlan Collins on the air about the U.S. soccer teams, arguing that the men should be paid more than the women. He claimed that if people were more interested in women's soccer, there "would be more attention and more money paid." Collins pointed out that "men were putting men's sports on TV way before women's sports," thus creating the problem.

Lemon's career at CNN came to an end in 2023, when he was fired by the network. He took to X in an effort to explain his side of the story, where he claimed he wasn't directly told by management that he was losing his job. CNN denied his allegation via their X account, saying "Don Lemon's statement about this morning's events is inaccurate." Lemon's departure was rumored to be connected to inappropriate behavior towards female coworkers, as described in Variety.

Collins commented on Lemon's firing the day after, on "CNN This Morning," (via Newscast Studio's YouTube). "Don was a big part of this show over the last six months," she said. "He was one of the first anchors on CNN to have me on his show, that's something I'll obviously never forget."