It’s been five years sinceMatt Lauerwas fired from theTodayshow.
A month after sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein kicked off the #MeToo movement,the longtime anchor was ousted from the showon Nov. 29, 2017, due to a complaint of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
In October 2019,Varietypublished an excerpt fromRonan Farrow’s book,Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, in which former NBC News employeeBrooke Nevilsalleged that Laueranally raped her in his hotel roomat the Sochi Olympics. Nevils told Farrow that she was “too drunk to consent” and also stated multiple times that she did not want to have anal intercourse.
A rep for Lauer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. However, Lauer denied any wrongdoing in a statement toVariety, saying he had an “extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter” with Nevils.
From Lauer’s firing to the state of his life five years later, here’s a timeline of the controversy surrounding the former anchor.
Nov. 27, 2017: A complaint is filed against Matt Lauer
At 6 p.m., Ari Wilkenfeld, a civil rights lawyer with the firm Wilkenfeld, Herendeen & Atkinson in Washington, and his client, an anonymous NBC employee, met with representatives from NBC’s human resources and legal departments to detail a complaint against Lauer. The interview lasted several hours, Wilkenfeld confirmed toThe New York Times.
“Our impression at this point is that NBC acted quickly, as all companies should, when confronted with credible allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace,” he said.
TheTimesmet with the woman Monday afternoon, but she told the newspaper she was not ready to come forward and tell her story publicly.
Nov. 28, 2017: NBC launches an investigation against Matt Lauer
An investigation ensued, and a decision was made to end his employment. A source confirmed to PEOPLE that Lauer was informed of his termination on Tuesday evening.
Nov. 29, 2017: Matt Lauer is fired fromToday
Todayemployeesfound out about Lauer’s firingjust hours before going live for Wednesday’s show. At the top of the 7 a.m. hour, Lauer’svisibly shakenco-anchorSavannah GuthrieandHoda Kotbannounced the news,reading aloud a staff memo from NBC News chairman Andrew Lack.
A source later confirmed to PEOPLE that Lauer’s involvement with the woman who made the complaint included while they were in Sochi, Russia,to cover the Winter Olympicsin 2014. We now know this woman is Nevils.
The complaint was “serious enough that he was terminated,” the source said. “The accuser described inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace occurring throughout 2014.”
Another source told PEOPLE the complaint came as a complete shock to Lauer.
“In his mind, this had been a consensual affair,” the source said. “And a long-term one at that.” (In the wake of his firing, several insiders have told PEOPLE that the veteran morning hostwas allegedly often unfaithfulto his wife, Annette Roque, with whom he shares three children: son Jack, daughter Romy, and son Thijs Lauer’s reps did not comment.)
Nov. 29, 2017: More allegations against Matt Lauer are brought to light
The most serious allegation was brought forth in theTimes, which reports that NBC received at least two more complaints related to Lauer on Wednesday. One complaint came from a former NBC employee whoalleged Lauer sexually assaulted her in his office in 2001. She provided her account to the newspaper but declined to let her name be used. Details of the second complaint have not been made public thus far.
The woman told theTimesthat Lauer never made an advance toward her again and never mentioned what occurred in his office. She said she did not report the episode to NBC at the time because she believed she should have done more to stop Lauer. She left the network about a year later.
The woman, who was in her early 40s at the time, told her then-husband about the encounter, which theTimesconfirmed with him in a phone call. The couple was separated at the time, and later divorced. She also described it to a friend five years ago, which the friend confirmed to theTimes.
According to the newspaper, the alleged incident was reported to NBC News on Wednesday after the woman told her then-supervisor, who still works at the network, about it. The woman said an NBC human resources representative had since contacted her.
In theVarietyreport,three anonymous women accused Lauer of sexual harassment, claiming he once brought a female employee into his office “and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis.” Lauer then allegedly “reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.” He also allegedly gave a female colleague a sex toy as a present, including “an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her.”
Nov. 29, 2017: NBC releases a statement about Matt Lauer
In response to the Wednesday reports, an NBC spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement, “We can say unequivocally, that, prior to Monday night, current NBC News management was never made aware of any complaints about Matt Lauer’s conduct.”
NBC correspondent Stephanie Gosk, who had been reporting on the story for theTodayshow, said during Megyn Kelly’s hour that while there are “as many as eight” Lauer accusers, their anonymity makes it impossible to distinguish between them.
“Because they’re anonymous, we don’t know if any of the people who spoke toVarietyalso spoke toThe New York Times, or also the two people that we know came forward to NBC after Matt was fired yesterday — we don’t know if any of them are the same women, so it’s as many as eight,” she said. “And let me just say, hearing those details about anybody is difficult — hearing them about someone you know is especially difficult and all of us here at NBC are grappling with that.”
Gosk also made a point to mention that the 2001 assault allegation against Lauer “elevates the accusation considerably.”
“An assault is a crime,” she said. “We have reached out to New York City police, we have reached out to police departments in Long Island. We know of no open criminal investigation against Matt Lauer.” (PEOPLE also reached out to the NYPD, who said they are not investigating any complaints against Lauer at this time.)
Nov. 30, 2017: Matt Lauer breaks his silence on allegations
Dec. 14, 2017: Addie Zinone details her alleged affair with Matt Lauer
FormerTodayshow staff member Addie Zinone (née Collins) wrote a piece for Variety detailing an alleged month-long affair with Lauer in 2000 when she was a 24-year-old production assistant about to leave NBC News and he was newly married.
Lauer’s representatives did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“Even though my situation with Matt was consensual, I ultimately felt like a victim because of the power dynamic. He knew that I was leaving, and that there was no better prey than somebody who is going to be gone. He went after the most vulnerable and the least powerful — and those were the production assistants and the interns,” said Zinone, who added that Lauer, “felt like he was untouchable.”
July 9, 2019: Matt Lauer’s wife, Annette Roque, files for divorce
Roque officiallyfiled for divorcefrom Lauer in Suffolk County, New York.
“The case, which is an uncontested matrimonial, was filed on July 9th in State Supreme Court in Suffolk County, New York and is awaiting judicial review of the agreement,” Lucian Chalfen, director of public information for the New York State Unified Court System, told PEOPLE. “Upon a judge’s signature, it will be sent to the court clerk’s office to be entered. The process could take up to a few months.”
Roque’s attorney John Teitler told PEOPLE, “The matter has been settled.”
Sept. 6, 2019: Matt Lauer and Annette Roque’s divorce is finalized
PEOPLE reported that Lauer and Roque’sdivorce had been finalized. “They are both focused on their three children,” one source close to Lauer said.
Oct. 8, 2019: Brooke Nevils details Matt Lauer’s alleged rape
Varietypublished an excerpt from Farrow’s book in which Nevils says she was tasked in Sochi with working with formerTodayco-anchorMeredith Vieira, who’d been brought back to the show to do Olympics coverage, and they ran into Lauer at the hotel bar one night.
At the end of the night, Nevils, who’d had six shots of vodka, ended up going to Lauer’s hotel room twice — once to retrieve her press credential, which Lauer had taken as a joke, and the second time because he invited her back, she said in the book, according toVariety.
Once she was in his hotel room, Nevils alleged, according toVariety, Lauer kissed her, then pushed her onto the bed and asked if she liked anal sex. Farrow wrote that Nevils said she “declined several times,“Varietyreported, but he allegedly “just did it” and didn’t use lubricant. Nevils reportedly claimed the encounter was painful and that she “bled for days.”
“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” she reportedly told Farrow in the book. “It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”
Nevils said in the book that she had more sexual encounters with Lauer back in New York City, according toVariety, telling Farrow: “It was completely transactional. It was not a relationship.”
At Vieira’s urging, Nevils reported her ordeal to NBC executives in the fall of 2017, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal,Varietyreports. Lauer was fired, Nevils went on medical leave in 2018 and was eventually paid, Farrow writes, according toVariety, “seven figures.”
Oct. 9, 2019: Matt Lauer denies raping Brooke Nevils
Lauerdenied raping Nevilsin a lengthy letter toVariety.
“In a new book, it is alleged that an extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter I have previously admitted having, was in fact an assault. It is categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense,” he said. “I had an extramarital affair with Brooke Nevils in 2014. It began when she came to my hotel room very late one night in Sochi, Russia. We engaged in a variety of sexual acts. We performed oral sex on each other, we had vaginal sex, and we had anal sex. Each act was mutual and completely consensual.”
Lauer continued: “The story Brooke tells is filled with false details intended only to create the impression this was an abusive encounter. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was absolutely nothing aggressive about that encounter. Brooke did not do or say anything to object. She certainly did not cry. She was a fully enthusiastic and willing partner. At no time did she behave in a way that made it appear she was incapable of consent. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do. The only concern she expressed was that someone might see her leaving my room. She embraced me at the door as she left.”
Lauer acknowledged that the encounter was the beginning of his affair with Nevils and “the first of many sexual encounters between us over the next several months.”
“At no time, during or after her multiple visits to my apartment, did she express in words or actions any discomfort with being there, or with our affair,” he said. “She also went out of her way to see me several times in my dressing room at work, and on one of those occasions, we had a sexual encounter. It showed terrible judgment on my part, but it was completely mutual and consensual.”
“Brooke now says that she was terrified about the control I had over her career and felt pressure to agree to our encounters after Sochi. But at no time during our relationship did Brooke work for me, the Today Show, or NBC News,” he continued. “She worked for Meredith Vieira (who had not worked for the Today Show in several years) in a completely different part of the network, and I had no role in reviewing Brooke’s work.”
October 2021: Katie Couric says she has ‘no relationship’ with Matt Lauer
In PEOPLE’s cover story, Couric opened up about feeling"shocked” when she learned of the allegations, calling his behavior"grossly inappropriate” and “callous.“She also addressed the scandal in her recent memoir,Going There.
During an appearance onTodayTuesday morning, the longtime journalist said that when she heard about the allegations against Lauer, it was “really, really hard and it took me a long time to process what was going on.”
“The side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt I think you all knew. He was kind, generous, considerate, a good colleague,” she said. “As I got more information and learned more about what was going on behind the scenes. And then I did some of my own reporting, talked to people, tried to excavate what had been going on. It was really devastating and also disgusting.”
Nov. 29, 2021: A source tells PEOPLE how Matt Lauer’s life has changed since hisTodayfiring
On thefourth anniversary of his firing, a source told PEOPLE that Lauer has “lost a lot of friends.”
“People would check up on him for a while, but that’s stopped to a degree,” the source said. “He just stays to himself, he doesn’t really reach out to people very much anymore or engage them and so he’s been losing touch with a lot of people.”
Lauer’s “lavish lifestyle” also had to change, the source said. “When he left theTodayshow, he didn’t get paid a penny after he got fired. NBC stuck with that. He’s presumably sitting on mountains of money but then again, he had a lot of money in real estate.”
Nov. 28, 2022: A source tells PEOPLE Matt Lauer remains ‘withdrawn’
A source told PEOPLE exclusively that the former morning show anchor has “kind ofwithdrawn from several friendships in the last year,” particularly following the release of his former co-hostKatie Couric’s memoir,Going There.
The source continued, “His level of trust has just diminished with a lot of people he considered friends and much of that was because of Katie’s book, and because talking to people from his past is painful.”
source: people.com
