UPDATE 10:00 a.m.: Matt Lauer released a statement to Variety, in which he denies raping Brooke and claims that their ‘affair’ was consensual. “I had an extramarital affair with Brooke Nevils in 2014,” he said. “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. 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.”
He added, “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 not time during our relationship did Brooke work for me, the Today Show, or NBC News. 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.” READ THE FULL STATEMENT HERE.
UPDATE 8:50 a.m.: “Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time,” NBC News said in a statement. “That’s why he was fired within 24 hours of us learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague.” Matt’s former colleagues at the Today Show, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, addressed the new allegations from Brooke during the show’s Oct. 9 episode. “This is shocking and appalling,” Savannah admitted. “I honestly don’t even know what to say about it. I know it wasn’t easy for our colleague Brooke to come forward then, and it’s not easy now. We support her and any woman who has come forward with claims. It’s just very painful for all of us at NBC and the Today Show. It’s very, very difficult.” Hoda added, “We don’t know all the facts of this, but it’s not allegations of an affair, it’s allegations of a crime. I think that’s shocking to all of us here, who sat with Matt for many, many years. I think we’re just going to continue to process this horrific story and our thoughts are with Brooke. It’s not easy, what she did, to come forward. It’s not easy at all.”
Ronan Farrow’s new book, Catch and Kill, details his 2017 investigation into Harvey Weinstein, while also touching upon another headline-making #MeToo scandal that involved Matt Lauer. When Matt was fired from the Today Show in 2017 for sexual misconduct, the identity of his accuser, as well as the specifics of her allegations, were not revealed. However, two years later, she is going on-record in Ronan’s tell-all, according to our sister site, Variety, who obtained a copy of the book. The woman’s name is Brooke Nevils, and she claims that Matt anally raped her while they were in Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Here’s more to know about Brooke and her accusations:
1. What allegedly happened during her first encounter with Matt Lauer? Brooke was in Sochi for the Winter Olympics because she was working with Meredith Vieira, who, like Matt, was covering the event for NBC. She says she was having drinks with Meredith at the bar when they ran into Matt, who joined them. After having six shots of vodka, Brooke went to Matt’s hotel room so she could retrieve her press pass, which he had taken from her as a joke. Later, she returned to the room for a second time because he invited her to come back. She alleges that Matt pushed her against the door and kissed her, while wearing nothing but boxer shorts, then put her on the bed, “flipping her over, asking if she liked anal sex.” Brooke says she “declined several times,” but Matt eventually “just did it.”
“Lauer, she said, didn’t use lubricant,” Ronan writes, according to Variety. “‘The encounter was excruciatingly painful. It hurt so bad, I remember thinking…is this normal?’ She told me she stopped saying no, but wept silently into a pillow.” Brooke told Ronan that she was “too drunk to consent” and that she said “multiple times that [she] didn’t want to have anal sex.”
2. She admits to having more sexual encounters with Matt once they arrived home. “Sources close to Lauer emphasized that [Brooke] sometimes initiated contact,” Ronan explains in the book, according to Variety. “What is not in dispute is that Nevils, like several of the women I’d spoken to, had several encounters with the man she had assaulted.” Brooke told Ronan, “This is what I blame myself most for. It was completely transactional. It was not a relationship.” She claims that she told “like a million people,” including “colleagues and superiors,” about what happened, but says that nothing was done until the fall of 2017, after the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Matt was fired on Nov. 29, 2017. HollywoodLife has reached out to Matt’s rep for comment.
3. She was eventually compensated by NBC. In Catch and Kill, Ronan writes that Brooke’s “work life became torture” because she was sitting in meetings with people who were “loyal to Lauer” and doubted her claims. IN 2018, she went on medical league, and was eventually paid “seven figures.”
4. How did she start working at NBC? Brooke graduated from Johns Hopkins in 2007, then moved to New York City, where she began working as a page for NBC. Her job consisted of organizing guests and bringing them to their interviews. She then became a personal assistant to Meredith Vieira, and served as an assistant producer for a special called A Leap Of Faith: A Meredith Vieira Special. As a member of the production team, Brooke was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine.
5. What other shows has she worked on? Brooke is also credited as a producer on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Headliners, Royal Wedding Watch, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After and Rock Center with Brian Williams.