Don Lemon Explodes At Piers Morgan Over CNN Clip That Led His Firing
Piers Morgan clashed with former CNN anchor Don Lemon in a fiery interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, leaving the ex-network star visibly frustrated and defensive.
Lemon, who was ousted from CNN last year after declaring that women are only “in their prime” during their 20s, 30s, and “maybe 40s,” appeared on Morgan’s show hoping to repair his image. Instead, he was confronted with the remarks that helped end his career.
During the interview, Morgan played the clip of Lemon’s 2023 comments about Nikki Haley, which sparked widespread backlash. When pressed if he regretted the statement, Lemon grew irritated and accused Morgan of staging an “ambush.”
At one point, Morgan snapped and called Lemon a “d*ck”, underscoring the tension between the two men.
His CNN tenure ended amid declining ratings and mounting controversy, with the “prime” comment becoming a lasting mark on his reputation.
“When a woman is considered to be in her prime—in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. What are you talking about? That’s not according to me. Prime for what? It depends. It’s just like prime. If you look it up, if you Google, ‘When is a woman in her prime?’ It’ll say 20s, 30s, and 40s. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think she has to be careful about saying that,” Lemon said at the time.
“When you watched that, Don, I happened to be watching that live, and I was like, well, what did you just say? If you had a do-over, would you say that again? What led you to say that?” Morgan said.
“Okay, Piers, let me just say, I’m going to answer your question, but just so the audience knows, and I hope you don’t cut this out—when I ask you what subjects you wanted to talk about, you know what you said to me? You said, ‘I want to talk to you about freedom of speech in America and the response to Charlie Kirk’s death,’” Lemon whined.
Don Lemon becomes visibly enraged as Piers Morgan rolls the very clip that got him fired from CNN.
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 18, 2025
“Not once did you mention that we were gonna talk about CNN or whatever. And had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have accepted this interview.”
What followed was a heated… pic.twitter.com/pYw40RmT2K
“Not once did you mention that we were going to talk about CNN or whatever. And had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have accepted this interview. You have invited me on many times, and I tell you, Piers, I know you. I would come on your show, but I don’t do panels,” he complained.
“And so when you said, ‘I’m not going to be involved in a panel,’ I agreed to come on your show. But I thought you would also stick by the subjects that you told me that you were going to talk about rather than try to ambush me with something,” he said.
The argument continued with the pair going back and forth trading insults until Morgan finally said, “I think you’re being a complete d**k, if I’m honest with you.”
Lemon retorted by saying, “Well, that’s very kind and respectful of you.”
“It wasn’t intended to be kind or respectful,” Morgan snapped back.
“You’ve already admitted that one of the subjects was free speech, and yet here you are getting enraged about me exercising my right to free speech to ask you a few questions,” the host said.
“Piers, I’m not enraged. I’m not enraged at all,” Lemon said.
Ahead of the broadcast, Morgan previewed the clash on X.
“Don Lemon is going absolutely berserk about me on his Instagram story… which makes me think he’s panicking about how he comes over in our interview that drops on @PiersUncensored tonight,” Morgan wrote. “He’s right to panic… he comes over a whiny, touchy, arrogant little d*ck.”
