Former CNN star presenter Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit against multi-billionaire Elon Musk and his social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, over the cancellation of a content deal. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Musk and his company unfairly terminated a partnership with Mr. Lemon and refused to pay him after using his name to promote the social media platform with advertisers.
According to the lawsuit, X had agreed to pay Mr. Lemon $1.5 million, along with a share of advertising revenue generated by his content. However, the deal collapsed abruptly in March after the recording of the first episode of The Don Lemon Show, which featured an interview with Mr. Musk.
In a post on X following the cancellation of the deal, Mr. Musk criticized Mr. Lemon’s approach, stating that it was “basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
Mr. Lemon, who had been with CNN for 17 years before being fired in April 2023, made on-air comments about then Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being past her prime, which led to his dismissal.
The lawsuit, filed in the California Superior Court in San Francisco, alleges that Mr. Musk and X used “false promises and representations” to persuade Mr. Lemon to agree to the partnership, only to cancel it after he had already spent thousands of dollars on creating the show.
Earlier this year, X had reached deals with Mr. Lemon, former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and sports radio presenter Jim Rome in an effort to bring advertisers back to the platform after a series of controversies.
BBC News has reached out to X for comment on the lawsuit.
