The US lawsuit claimed that X agreed to pay Lemon a minimum of $1.5m.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Elon Musk months after a partnership with Musk’s X social media platform was scrapped.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in the US, Lemon mentioned the X proprietor unfairly terminated their deal, refused to pay him and used the media persona’s identify to draw advertisers.
The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Courtroom in San Francisco, a authorized submitting confirmed.
X cancelled its partnership with Lemon in March after he mentioned Musk can be his first visitor in an interview.
“His method was mainly simply ‘CNN, however on social media’, which doesn’t work,” Musk later mentioned in a submit on the platform, including that Lemon was welcome to construct viewership on the platform.
Lemon, a preferred prime-time persona, was fired from CNN in April final 12 months after 17 years on the cable tv community following a brief tenure as morning present co-host.
X, previously Twitter, has struggled to retain advertisers amid a sequence of controversies ever since billionaire Musk purchased the corporate in 2022.
The platform in January signed Lemon, former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports activities radio host Jim Rome, a part of an effort to develop video content material on the location and convey advertisers again to its platform.
The lawsuit claimed that X agreed to pay Lemon a minimum of $1.5m with further funds as incentives and part of the promoting income.
“This case is simple. X executives used Don to prop up their promoting gross sales pitch, then cancelled their partnership and dragged Don’s identify by means of the mud,” mentioned Lemon’s legal professional, Carney Shegerian.