Don Lemon ties the knot with longtime partner Tim Malone

This weekend, wedding bells rang across New York City for Don Lemon and Tim Malone. On April 6, Lemon married his fiancé of five years at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in a unique yet traditional ceremony. 

“We wanted to make a public statement,” Malone told People magazine, explaining the couple’s emphasis on having a traditional ceremony that would “involve our loved ones.”

“We obviously could have easily gone to city hall,” Malone said. “We could have used Covid as a perfect excuse to do something really quiet. But I think this is also a message. For I don’t know what percent of our guests, on both sides, but for a lot of them, it’s going to be their first gay wedding.”

Honoring both of their individual upbringings, the ceremony included a religious service, a big Irish blessing led by Malone’s sisters, a unity candle lighting and jumping the broom. In addition to cultural traditions, Lemon and Malone also followed the popular “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.” Each wearing custom suits by Suit Supply, Malone showcased his something blue with his blue, velvet double-breasted jacket, while Lemon opted to hide his blue under his suit. 

Surrounded by approximately 140 friends and family, the couple’s guest list featured stars like Sunny Hostin, Tamron Hall and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who officiated the ceremony. Further mixing modern and traditional elements, Lemon and Malone exchanged personal vows before saying the traditional wedding vows. 

“I’m a last-minute person, and most things I just don’t worry about,” Lemon said. “I have not been nervous about anything except writing the vows.” 

Walking out to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” the couple exited the church and stepped into a New Orleans-inspired second line, which marched from the church to the wedding reception in honor of Lemon’s hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

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The newlyweds celebrated their nuptials at the Ralph Lauren Polo Bar, where they coincidently had their first date nearly eight years ago. Lemon and Malone’s romance began during the 2016 election when they attended a viewing party together. Lemon recalls them leaving the star-studded viewing party to eat at the Polo Bar. Having the night off, and spotty cell service in the subterranean restaurant, Lemon remembers the moment they learned Trump had won the presidency.  

“Tim and I looked at each other and I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be alone tonight.’ It was so weird,” he said. “We went back to my apartment in Harlem and then he never left.”

Swapping their dress shoes for Nike Dunk sneakers, Lemon and Malone returned to the Polo bar where their wedding guests dined on salmon, cauliflower steak and bone-in ribeye, the latter of which the couple ate on their first date. While the former CNN anchor sees marriage as a confirmation of his and Malone’s love and commitment to each other, he admitted that he never imagined being able to do so as a gay man. 

“I never thought that I would get married,” Lemon shared. “I mean, maybe Tim’s generation, he’s 18 years younger than me. So for him maybe it was more of a possibility. The legal part of it is a big deal because I didn’t think it could happen. And for so many years of my growing up and hiding things, I never thought it could happen legally. But when you consider all the rights that people are trying to take away, I wanted to make sure that we get this done right.”