Bob Johnson, left, founder and chairman of BET, gets presented with a BET award by Debra Lee, BET President and CEO, Oct. 26, 2005, in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
The revelation by former Black Entertainment Television CEO Debra Lee that she had a longtime affair with her boss, Bob Johnson, the co-founder of BET, has come as a shock for many.
In her new memoir, “I Am Debra Lee,” Lee, 68, details her extramarital affair with Johnson, among other insights about her time at the popular and groundbreaking cable network.
BET‘s parent company Paramount is trying to raise money by shedding assets to pay down debt, and producer Tyler Perry and L.A.-based media mogul Byron Allen have both expressed interest in buying a majority stake in the TV network.
Here are five things to know.
Lee launched her career with the network as its first vice president and general counsel in 1986. She was promoted to president and chief operating officer 10 years later. She was named chairman and CEO in 2005 and retired in 2018 after a 13-year tenure. While at the network, she spearheaded such hit shows “Being Mary Jane,” “The Real Husbands of Hollywood,” and “In Contempt,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
“I stepped down from BET about three years ago,” Lee said during a recent interview with Good Morning America. “I was supposed to ‘retire,’ but you know that never works for those of us who are used to working so hard. And I always wanted to write a book.”
According to Lee, she worked for Johnson, who became the first African-American billionaire in 2001 after selling BET to Viacom Inc. for $3 billion in 2000, for 10 years before they began a secret romance. Both were married at the time, WBLS reported.
“He was a mentor, and he pushed me. He was responsible for a lot of my success,” Lee told GMA. “We did have a relationship while we were both married, we ended up both divorced. And then people knew about the relationship. The company knew … we started going places together. The downfall of a relationship like that is if you want to get out of it. It came, and 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.”
Lee said she was 20 years into her career at BET when she told Johnson she wanted to end the affair. He didn’t take it well, she said.
Lee told GMA that when she wanted to break up, Johnson, who is now 76, threatened her career.
“If you want to break up with me, you can leave tomorrow,” she says Johnson told. “That was 20 years into my career at BET, so I would’ve lost everything.”
She continued, “So I would’ve lost everything. I would’ve lost my career, my job, my ability to maybe get another job [if] I couldn’t get a reference. … By that time I was a single mother with two children. So it was a tough time and I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it because I didn’t have female role models. There weren’t a lot of women ahead of me. I was embarrassed to talk with my family about it. So it was a dark time.”
When Johnson eventually left BET in 2006 and Lee became chief executive.
“I was able to live my dream without any form of harassment. So I guess after Me Too and Time’s Up, I wanted women to know there’s other kinds of harassment. It’s not all a man coming to the door in a robe. That’s not the kind of relationship I had. It was one that grew into a relationship. At times it felt consensual, you know, because we were out in public,” Lee said. “But after Me Too and Time’s Up came back, I sort of reevaluated the whole thing and [asked], ‘Was this really my choice?’”
Bob Johnson, left, founder and chairman of BET, gets presented with a BET award by Debra Lee, BET President and CEO, during the 25 Strong: BET Silver Anniversary Special taping, Oct. 26, 2005, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
