CNN’s Don Lemon attempted to hold the British Royal Family accountable for slavery, while speaking to a British Royal commentator on Monday night. 

The segment backfired and blew up in Lemon’s face as he spoke to Hilary Fordwich, whom he had on to weigh in on the death of Queen Elizabeth II as “England is facing rising costs of living, a living crisis, austerity budget cuts, and so on.”

“And then you have those who are asking for reparations for colonialism, and they’re wondering, you know, $100 billion, $24 billion here and there, $500 million there,” Lemon said. “Some people want to be paid back and, and members of the public are wondering, ‘Why are we suffering when you are, you know, you have all of this vast wealth?’ Those are legitimate concerns.”

Fordwich replied with an answer Lemon did not expect, and detailed the supply chain that led to the globalization of slavery. 

“Well, I think you’re right about reparations in terms of if people want it, though, what they need to do is you always need to go back to the beginning of a supply chain,” Fordwich said. 

“Where was the beginning of the supply chain? That was in Africa, and when it crossed the entire world, when slavery was taking place, which was the first nation in the world that abolished slavery? The first nation world to abolish it, it was started by William Wilberforce, was the British. In Great Britain, they abolished slavery,” she said. 

“Two thousand naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery,” Fordwich continued. “Why? Because the African kings were rounding up their own people, they had them on cages waiting in the beaches. No one was running into Africa to get them.” 

“And I think you’re totally right. If reparations needs to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, ‘Who was rounding up their own people and having them handcuffed in cages?’ Absolutely. That’s where they should start,” Fordwich added. “And maybe, I don’t know, the descendants of those families where they died at the, in the high seas trying to stop the slavery, that those families should receive something too, I think, at the same time.”

CNN’s @DonLemon tells royal commentator Hilary Fordwich the royal family should pay reparations — immediately regrets it pic.twitter.com/LotCfBoAym

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 20, 2022