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- Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon have hired the same lawyer after leaving their respective networks.
- Bryan Freedman is known as the go-to lawyer for multimillion-dollar payouts in messy media breakups.
- He’s worked for former TV hosts at ABC, NBC, and CNN, and a long list of celebrities.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson and CNN anchor Don Lemon both left their networks on Monday and have just hired the same powerhouse lawyer to handle their departures, according to multiple reports.
Neither host has announced a lawsuit or dispute against their employers. But the litigator they’ve retained — Bryan Freedman — has a record of helping TV hosts secure millions from their old networks.
Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter reported that both Carlson and Lemon are retaining Freedman’s services, while The New York Times also wrote that Lemon had hired Freedman.
Messy media breakups are a staple for Freedman, famed for aggressively representing a laundry list of the entertainment world’s most prominent figures. His clients include Vin Diesel, Quentin Tarantino, and Mariah Carey.
Freedman previously worked to help former host Megyn Kelly secure around $30 million from NBC News after she parted ways with the network in 2019. Kelly was fired halfway through her three-year contract worth $69 million, but NBC agreed to pay her the remainder of her original salary.
In 2021, Freedman also represented longtime “The Bachelor” host Chris Harrison, who reached a $10 million exit settlement with ABC after facing backlash over his comments on the show, per Variety.
Chris Cuomo, the anchor fired by CNN in December 2021, also hired Freedman in his ongoing wrongful termination suit against the network for $125 million.
Lemon, like Cuomo, appears to have left CNN on a bitter note too. In a tweet on Monday, he wrote that he was “terminated by CNN” and “stunned” by the announcement.
“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” he tweeted.
“It is clear that there are some larger issues at play,” Lemon added.
CNN has disputed Lemon’s statement, saying that he was “offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
As for Carlson, the now-ousted Fox News host only knew about his departure 10 minutes before the network made the announcement, The Wall Street Journal and The Times reported.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Carlson told his staff at the time, according to The Daily Beast.
Freedman did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment for Carlson and Lemon, sent outside regular business hours. Lemon’s agent also did not immediately respond to a similar request.
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