Don Lemon is still on a “wedding high” since marrying Tim Malone, and he’s spilling all the secrets behind creating their perfect guest list.
“It is all people who are obviously really important to us, first of all. Family and then our extended family, our friends and the people who are closest to us,” Lemon, 58, exclusively told Us Weekly at the TIME100 Gala on Thursday, April 25. “If we hadn’t seen people in a long time and we lost touch with them, we sort of did it that way. Childhood friends [and] college friends were all there, and obviously, the people we love the most.”
Lemon and Malone, 38, tied the knot on April 6 in a New York City ceremony officiated by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Among the 140 guests were music mogul Clive Davis, Alec Baldwin, The View cohost Joy Behar, former Today anchor Matt Lauer and Sex and the City creator Darren Star.
Despite the crowd of A-listers, Lemon asserted on Thursday that he and his longtime partner didn’t intend for the celebration to be star-studded.
“It was funny because people were saying, ‘Oh, there’s a celebrity guest list.’ It’s not like [that],” Lemon told Us. “Joy is my neighbor in the Hamptons. Sunny [Hostin] was [in the] office across from mine [at] CNN. We’ve known each other forever.”
He added, “Sara [Haines], who is on The View, was in the page program at NBC with my husband. Whoopi [Goldberg] is a mentor [and] Clive Davis is a mentor and a longtime friend. These are just longtime friends, and so it wasn’t like a celebrity guest list. It was people we love the most in the world.”
With the wedding festivities behind them, Lemon and Malone are left basking in newlywed bliss.
“I go and hang out with my husband and my dogs, and we try to go to the beach and we just chill,” Lemon explained of his recent self-care rituals. “And we have Sunday family dinner every Sunday … if we’re out in the Hamptons, if we’re in New York, wherever we are, we have Sunday dinner. It’s date night, and then by the end of the night, [Tim] falls asleep before we can get to the movie.”
Lemon further noted that Malone’s sleeping habits even inspired his wedding vows.
“I said, ‘I love it when you fall asleep on date night before the credits are even there,’” he quipped to Us. “‘So that’s important to me [and] let’s get married.’”
With reporting by Andrew Nodell
