Don Lemon is taking Elon Musk to court.
The former CNN anchor filed a lawsuit on Thursday, Aug. 1, against the billionaire businessman, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
The lawsuit is over Musk abruptly ending Lemon’s podcast deal. Musk originally courted the news anchor to debut his podcast, “The Don Lemon Show” on X, formerly Twitter, however, things quickly soured between the two.
As Lemon explained back in March on “The Tamron Hall Show,” Musk became enraged when he was interviewed on the digital talk show.
The conversation went “sideways” when Lemon grilled the Tesla and SpaceX CEO about his past controversial social media posts about diversity, equity and inclusion. Once the hour-long interview was over, Musk sent a text message to Lemon’s agent, saying, “Contract is Cancelled.”
Lemon’s lawsuit alleges that Musk and X convinced him “through false promises and representations” to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the web-based show, only to pull the rug from under him.”
Related: Don Lemon Says Elon Musk Dumped His X Talk Show After ‘Tense’ Interview
Lemon alleges that Musk only wanted to announce a partnership with him to “trade off his name,” and help his social media company’s tarnished image. Once Musk took over Twitter and changed thr name to X, most advertisers and users left due to the toxic nature of the site.
Lemon was reportedly skeptical of striking a deal with Musk due to his “unhinged public behavior,” but his doubts were later put to rest after X chief executive Linda Yaccarino and Brett Weitz, head of talent at X, took him out for lunch in New York City. They assured him the company would give their full backing.
In the lawsuit, Yaccarino is named along with Musk, stating that they promised Lemon a $1.5 million deal and an added revenue-sharing incentive to post his content on the platform 24 hours before uploading it anywhere else.
Lemon’s attorney Carney Shegerian called the “case straightforward” in a released statement.
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