Excerpts from Don Lemon’s chat w/Tamron Hall

In a daytime exclusive interview on an episode of “Tamron Hall,” journalist and former CNN host Don Lemon addressed his recent sit-down with former business partner Elon Musk. Lemon’s hour-long interview with Musk marked the premiere of “The Don Lemon Show,” which Musk had planned to stream on his social media platform “X”, formerly known as Twitter. Lemon addressed some of the contentious moments from the interview and reacted to Musk’s decision to pull his show from X following the interview.

Lemon addresses misconceptions about his business partnership with Musk: “He was a distribution partner. Just like your show [“Tamron Hall”] is distributed on different networks and different platforms. He was just a partner in that and that was just one thing, but originally it’s always been our intention for the show to go to as many places as possible on YouTube, on iHeartRadio, on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, and on and on. So wherever you get streaming content, or wherever you get podcasts, you can get the show, and thank you all for tuning in and signing up

On his hesitancy to partner with the ‘erratic’ Musk: “As they say in the South, ‘you knew I was a snake before you picked me up,’ right? So again, I’m not saying he’s a snake but I’m saying I knew what I was dealing with. It was a person who is a bit erratic. So, yes, I knew that, but what I wanted to do was, they said they wanted to bring some credibility to the platform. He said, ‘I want to have voices from all different perspectives.’”

On asking Musk about his ketamine use and his own experience with antidepressants: “This is a journey because that was one of the things that we actually agreed upon, and his answer was good, but it took him a while to get to it and people said, ‘why did you keep following up?’ I was like, because he has talked about this and I was waiting for him to get to that and finally he got to it, but let me share something with you. I have suffered from depression, right? I take an antidepressant now, it’s Wellbutrin or something like that. So I’m very transparent about that. It helped me get through the summer, you know, after losing a job, being fired. So, I do talk therapy now, but my doctor has also done guided therapy with me on drugs. I don’t know if it’s ever been ketamine but he says, you know, you should try other things. Then SSRI. Also, I don’t know if you’ve done it. It has helped people with PTSD when you use those drugs, but you have to do it under a doctor’s care. He said it was very personal. I said, well, the only reason I’m talking about this is because you put it out into the public domain.”

Addressing being considered “greedy” in his podcast deal with Musk: “It’s an obvious distraction, right? They’re trying to sully my reputation. They’re trying to smear me. It’s ridiculous, right? So I don’t want to get into that. It’s not true. But here’s the thing, you’re right. When people negotiate all the time, and maybe they’re not used to talent negotiations. I’m not saying that any of that’s true. But people ask for a lot of things. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. If you don’t ask, you’re not going to get it.”

Lemon reveals his plans for his upcoming wedding with fiancé Tim Malone: “We’ve picked out our songs. There will be some people you know at the wedding, and it was very important – we’re getting married in a church.The religion part was very important to me because I grew up religious. I’m a believer, right. I’m a Christian. So I believe in that. Tim is a Catholic. We couldn’t get married in the Catholic Church for obvious reasons, but also the legal part is very important to me as well because I didn’t think my relationship would ever be public. But I also never thought that I would be able to get married. I picked up my marriage license and the person who is going to officiate our wedding, it’s gonna be someone… It’s going to be legal. Real, real, legal!”