Veteran CNN host Poppy Harlow is leaving the struggling cable news network — two months after the cancellation of “CNN This Morning,” where a slew of on-air meltdowns had sparked last year's ouster of Don Lemon.
CNN boss Mark Thompson told staffers of Harlow's departure during CNN's 9 a.m. editorial call Friday — and Harlow confirmed her exit in an email to colleagues.
"When I walked in the door at CNN in 2008, I was 25 years old and had never been on live TV. Green is an understatement!” Harlow wrote in the email, which was first reported by Vanity Fair. "I grew up here: as a journalist and as a person."
Harlow, 41, thanked Thompson, as well as Amy Entelis — the executive vice president for talent, CNN originals, and creative development — writing that the two have "been wonderful and have given me the space to make this decision."
She will officially exit CNN next week.
Harlow, who has held various reporting and anchor gigs at CNN, most recently served as a co-host on “CNN This Morning,” the ill-fated morning show launched in 2022 under ousted CEO Chris Licht.
She was teamed with Kaitlan Collins and Lemon, who was fired after a series of missteps, including blowing up at Collins off camera and infamously declaring on air that Nikki Haley, then a GOP presidential candidate, was “not in her prime.”
In the February incident, Lemon went on a diatribe over the 51-year-old Haley calling for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75.
"This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable," the 56-year-old Lemon began. "I think it's the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime.”
To the bewilderment of Harlow and Collins, Lemon then said: "A woman is considered to be in their prime in [their] 20s and 30s and maybe 40s."
Harlow immediately called out the failed primetime host: “What are you talking about, wait … Prime for what?”
Lemon quickly tried to save himself by claiming he wasn't stating his personal beliefs.
"That's not according to me," he said. “It's like, prime. If you look it up. If you Google when is a woman in her prime, it'll say 20s, 30s, and 40s.”
He continued: “I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve. Because she wouldn’t be in her prime according to, you know, Google.”