(NewsNation) — Award-winning actress Patricia Heaton proved CNN news anchor Don Lemon wrong after he made an “inartful” comment about “women in their prime” during his show last Thursday.
Lemon made the comment in reference to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s calls for mandatory competency tests for politicians over 75. He said that Haley needed to be careful of not alienating older voters, saying she sounded ageist. In turn, he was quickly accused of being sexist.
Heaton took to Twitter in response to Lemon’s comment.
She tweeted, starting a thread, “Hey ladies — @donlemon thinks women over 50 are past their prime! Let’s start #primetime and list some of the things we’ve accomplished in these glorious later years.”
Heaton then continued to list out all of her accomplishments, ultimately proving Lemon wrong with her own career.
“I didn’t start my career until my early 30s and didn’t have my first child until I was 35. So if you’re telling me that by the time, you know, 20 years later, 15 years later, I’m washed up. I mean, I don’t know my life doesn’t look washed up to me,” Heaton said.
Heaton said she has received hundreds of tweets about all the things women are doing, from starting businesses to doing charity work and climbing mountains, all the while still taking care of their families.
“For years and years and years, there’s no age limit to what we can do,” she said, saying dismissing a woman after she turns 50 is just silly.
Now, at 64 years old, Heaton said she just produced the new movie, Unexpected, which just came out last week on Amazon Prime and iTunes.
However, Heaton did say that Lemon just made a big mistake and that he isn’t a terrible person. She also said it was “fun to receive” because then all the women out there could prove him wrong.
After a short absence away from the screen and a “frank” conversation with CNN boss Chris Licht, Lemon is expected to return to his morning show Wednesday morning, despite receiving major backlash from the comment.
Lemon has since issued an apology, saying his remarks were “inartful and irrelevant.” In addition, Lemon said he will continue with sensitivity training while back at the anchor desk.
