Debra Lee Says Her Job & Career Was Threatened After Attempting To End Affair w/BET Founder Bob Johnson: ‘I Would’ve Lost Everything’

Debra Lee, Bob Johnson

Debra Lee Says Her Job & Career Was Threatened After Attempting To End Affair w/BET Founder Bob Johnson: ‘I Would’ve Lost Everything’

Former BET CEO Debra Lee is opening up about a hard time in her life.

While promoting her new memoir, the TV exec revealed how her extramarital affair nearly ruined her career.

Debra Lee

Apparently, Debra Lee began a romantic relationship with BET founder Bob Johnson while still climbing up the network ranks. Both individuals were still married at the time but began dating publicly while going through separate divorces. According to Debra Lee, in the beginning, things were good as they had a mutual admiration for each other. She stated:

“I worked for Bob Johnson for 10 years before we had a personal romantic relationship, and he was a mentor and he pushed me and you know – he’s responsible for a lot of my success.”

Debra Lee, Bob Johnson

However, it seems things went left after Lee wanted out of the relationship. She continued:

“The downfall of a relationship like that is if you want to get out of it…It came, I wanted to break-up. I saw it wasn’t a long term relationship and my job and my career was held over my head. It was like ‘well if you want to break up with me you can leave tomorrow.”

#DebraLee, the former CEO of BET, appeared on ‘GMA’ to promote her new memoir, I Am Debra Lee. The entertainment entrepreneur spoke about her romantic relationship with BET founder #BobJohnson. Lee revealed that they were both married when they began their relationship. pic.twitter.com/O0vpSw1oSU

— theJasmineBRAND (@thejasminebrand) March 7, 2023

Adding:

“That was 20 years into my career at BET, so I would’ve lost everything,” 

As Lee stated, her situation with Bob Johnson eventually became problematic. The TV exec said she didn’t have anyone to turn to as she had no role models at the time and was too ashamed to bring the issue to family and friends. Afraid of potentially losing her income and not being able to secure work as a single mother of 2, Lee endured and stayed with the company.

With the help of therapy and Bob Johnson’s eventual departure, however, Lee went on to achieve much success with the network, becoming and remaining BET’s CEO for 13 years while “living out my dream.” The author said she decided to include the story about Johnson in her memoir to highlight the importance of power dynamics in a relationship. Specifically, the dangers of getting intimately involved with your boss. Lee added that in regards to women empowerment movements such as “Me Too,” harassment is not always forthright, and can show up in different ways.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Leave them in the comments!