Who Is Lee Cruse? New Details On The Kentucky TV Anchor Fired For Racist Remarks About Royal Baby
He was fired for a racist remark about the royal baby.
Instagram A television station in Kentucky has fired the host of its morning show for what it said were inappropriate comments made during his show. WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky fired Lee Cruse, co-host of the morning show Live with Lee & Hayley. On May 9th, Cruse laughed and praised a BBC radio host who compared Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's newborn son Archie to a chimpanzee. Cruse mention the radio host by name, laughed, and said: "this is my new favorite disc jockey." Yikes. The television station fired Cruse for the remark. Who is Lee Cruse?
1. He acknowledged his mistake
On May 10th, the day after he praised the BBC host's racist remark, Cruse apologized on air. He claimed that he had not read his script before going on air and that he made a mistake and regretted it. He called himself a "full-blown moron idiot" and said: “That’s not me. That isn’t me at all." He went on to say he deserved to be called the “vile and ugly” names people were calling him on social media.
2. The BBC host
Danny Baker is the BBC host who tweeted a picture of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee who was dressed in clothes. He captioned the photo: "Royal baby leaves hospital." Cruse said that he wasn't aware of the racist joke and had not seen the tweet when he referred to Baker as his "new favorite disc jockey." The NAACP was quick to criticize Cruse, saying: “Rather than celebrating the birth of a child as an emblem of royalty for people of African descent, Mr. Cruse chose to continue the disrespect, hate and ridicule that had already been deemed to be inappropriate by another television station.”
3. He is a stand up comic
Cruse is a stand up comic who performs in comedy clubs in and around Lexington. In a 2017 interview with LEO Weekly he said he believes in doing clean comedy: “When I host the open mics here in Lexington, I always try to steer the new guys away from doing humor they couldn’t do on The Tonight Show, or in front of a corporate audience, because that’s where the bulk of the money is going to be made. And you can always dirty it up later, if that’s what you want to do. Some people find it an identity thing, or freedom of speech. To me it’s not about those things. It’s about marketability. It’s about giving yourself as much longitude and latitude as a comic to be able to make money and support yourself.”
4. He's been married for 20 years
Lee married his wife Elizabeth in July 2000. She is from Monticello, Kentucky and graduated from the University of Kentucky. She is the owner of the Miss Priss store in Lexington. The store specializes in gowns and swimsuits for beauty pageants and prom dresses.
5. There is a petition to get his job reinstated
Because this is Lexington, Kentucky and sadly racism is alive and well in the South, there is an online petition demanding that Cruse be given his job back. More than 15,000 people have signed the online petition that calls Cruse a good man and says that he is not a racist. It says: “Lee Cruise was fired by lex 18 after making a comment that a few perceived as racist. We a community as a whole, can not just up and say that a word is racist, when it’s not meant in a derogatory way toward a particular race gender or religion. Lee is a good man who is in no way racist. Please share this petition to let LEX 18 know that there are viewers do not approve.”
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based freelance writer covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. She is deeply devoted to her chocolate Labrador and an avid long distance runner. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.