DON Lemon has been spotted in a rare public appearance months after he was fired from CNN.

Lemon, 57, worked at the news organization for 17 years as an anchor and correspondent but was let go in April 2023.

Lemon was seen in Beverly Hills, California, on Tuesday while attending the Shari Redstone & Gelila Assefa Puck Host Rebuilding Bridges Dinner.

The evening was held at Spago, a popular restaurant that serves as the famous flagship for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group.

Lemon could be seen with a short buzz cut, clean-shaven, and in a tailored gray suit with a silver tie during the rare public appearance.

Five months prior, the journalist made waves after he took to X, formerly Twitter, to explain that he was “stunned” to learn he’d been fired.

He said that he was informed of the news by his agent.

“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon wrote.

He added that “there are some larger issues at play.”

It was later reported that Lemon’s firing was due to controversial comments he made on-air about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in February.

The remarks came during a conversation on-air alongside co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.

The CNN This Morning correspondent was slammed for being “sexist” after saying that Haley was not “in her prime” and that if she was instead “in her 20s, 30s, and maybe her 40s,” it would be different.

Lemon was asked if he meant “prime for childbearing or prime for being president,” to which he said: “Don’t shoot the messenger — I’m just saying what the facts are.”

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He later called his comments “inartful and irrelevant” in a statement, but it was too late.

CNN Chairman Chris Licht issued an official statement on Lemon’s firing in April.

“CNN and Don have parted ways,” Licht told The New York Times.

“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years.”

The chairman added: “We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

CNN also disputed Lemon’s post on X, saying that Lemon “was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”

Lemon joined CNN in 2006 after previously working at an NBC affiliate in Chicago, Illinois.

He quickly rose to a prominent position in the newsroom and gained nationwide attention after coming out as gay in a 2011 memoir titled Transparent when few anchors or public figures had been so open yet.

The correspondent described a significant worry that coming out as a Black man meant that viewers would “shun” him entirely.

CNN This Morning was a new show in 2022 and cast Lemon at the helm in September, to which the journalist noted excitement.

“I was honestly floored when Chris Licht asked me to do this, and I’m honored by his belief in me,” Lemon wrote on social media at the time.

He added: “Set your alarms, folks, because we’re going to have a lot of fun.”

For more related content, check out The U.S. Sun’s coverage of why White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to be interviewed by Lemon.

The U.S. Sun also has the story on everything you need to know about Dustin Hice’s previous allegations against the CNN correspondent.