CNN anchor Don Lemon confuses TV reporter for ex-girlfriend on New Year’s Eve

CNN anchor Don Lemon is know for the alcohol-heavy New Year’s Eve broadcasts he co-hosts alongside Brooke Baldwin in New Orleans.

While ringing in the new year in 2017, Lemon downed shots while having his ear pierced. In 2018, he sucked the head of a boiled crawfish handed to him by a stranger. His annual liquor-fuel antics have earned the Baton Rouge native the yearly hashtag #DrunkDonLemon.

This time around, the one-time NBC10 reporter thought he spotted an ex-girlfriend named Michelle in the crowd at The Spotted Cat in the French Quarter during CNN’s live New Year’s coverage.

“I used to date her,” Lemon said, waving to the woman in the crowd. “Oh my god! Mom, if you are watching at home, do you remember Michelle?"

"Are you serious?” Baldwin responded. “And she's just randomly in the crowd at the Spotted Cat?"

As it turns out, the woman wasn’t “Michelle” from the openly gay anchor’s past — it was actually Caresse Jackman, a reporter for WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans. Jackman explained the strange mix-up on Eyewitness News Tuesday night.

“No, I am not Don Lemon’s ex-girlfriend,” Jackson said, explaining that she was just hanging out at the Spotted Cat with several co-workers when she made eye contact with the CNN anchor and began waving.

“I’m like, ‘Hey, Don Lemon. Hey, how are you doing?’ I did not know … he was saying to Brooke Baldwin that I was his ex-girlfriend from college,” Jackson said. “Natalie Shepard, my colleague, texted me and said, ‘Did you know Don Lemon called you his ex-girlfriend Michelle from college?’ I was like, ‘What in the world?!’”

Jackman said her phone has been blowing up since Monday night, but she has yet to hear from Lemon.

“It has been crazy,” Jackson said. “What can you do but laugh?”

In addition to mixing up Jackman with a former flame, Lemon spent the evening singing, dancing, and cradling puppies while downing copious amount of alcohol.

“Everyone wants to see Don Lemon get lady lit!” Baldwin joked.

“I’m not drunk, but whatever,” Lemon said. “So listen, do you like Mexico?”