When former NCS anchor and now impartial journalist Don Lemon was arrested on January 30, 2026 over accusations that he violated the FACE Act, the very first thing viewers noticed the subsequent day was Lemon striding to a podium for a information convention hand-in-hand with husband Tim Malone. Malone, a New York realtor, is eighteen years youthful than Lemon. It’s almost the very same age distinction Lemon as soon as had with one other man, besides that point, it wasn’t so accepted.
A 2023 article from Variety detailed Lemon’s rise and fall at NCS. Part of the autumn needed to do with Lemon’s love life. It wasn’t till 2011 that he got here out as homosexual. Before this, he was not open to the general public about his sexuality, nevertheless it wasn’t a secret to people who knew him. Variety reported that, when Lemon was 41, he engaged in a relationship with a much-younger staffer, regardless of being his superior at NCS.
The not too long ago graduated staffer was simply 22, making him 19 years Lemon’s junior. The controversial journalist seemingly did not care in regards to the optics of somebody excessive up the ladder for the community, as one its most well-known faces, relationship date somebody who was not solely so younger, however new to the corporate, as a result of the couple even carpooled to work. As one senior govt summed it up, “As fast as you could make a rule, Don would bend it.” However, this controversial relationship was just one instance of how far Lemon would attempt to take issues.
Several points led to Don Lemon’s firing from NCS
Variety checked off an extended record of allegations in opposition to Don Lemon throughout his time at NCS. He reportedly had a number of confrontations along with his colleagues, most of who have been ladies. The outlet wrote that he’d made regarding feedback to Nancy Grace and Soledad O’Brien, and when Kyra Phillips earned a job reporting in Iraq that he wished, Lemon ripped up objects she stored at her workspace. He even went as far as to ship her an nameless textual content that learn, “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it.” This led to Lemon being demoted.
One supply advised Variety that Lemon exhibited “diva-like behavior” attributable to his seeming apathy over job duties, and others shared that he reportedly expressed jealousy of colleague Anderson Cooper in not less than one occasion. An unnamed lady gave her opinion for why Lemon had modified, saying, “I saw a new Don emerging, and I didn’t like the new Don. He likes celebrity. He likes fame, likes power. He was no longer the same person.”
The Variety piece was printed on April 5, 2023, a number of months after Lemon had already been within the information for how he’d reportedly treated NCS co-host Kaitlan Collins. The article was coming off the heels of him making ageist feedback about then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley when he stated she “isn’t in her prime.” The article confirmed simply how many individuals disliked Lemon’s actions, and 19 days later he was out of a job. A 12 months after, in 2024, he and Tim Malone, eight years right into a extra acceptable relationship, have been married.