Matt Lauer accuser Brooke Nevils details allegations in new essay
Former NBC talent assistant Brooke Nevils speaks out against Matt Lauer in a new personal essay.
Former Today anchor Matt Lauer was spotted in a rare sighting in New York about two months after former NBC talent assistant Brooke Nevils went public with sexual assault allegations in 2017.
According to People magazine, Lauer, 68, was spotted with girlfriend Shamin Abbas after dinner in Sag Harbor Village, Long Island, on March 23.
In the photo shared by People, Lauer can be seen wearing a light gray jacket and a dark baseball cap, while Abbas can be seen wearing a dark coat with fur lining. It’s the first time the former TV personality has been photographed since November, People newspaper reported.
In a dodgy article in The Cut published on January 28, Ms. Nevils not only discussed the alleged assault that occurred in Sochi, Russia, during NBC’s Olympic coverage, but also explained why she did not report it to law enforcement.
“A startling and clear thought crossed my mind, but it quickly faded from consciousness. If anyone else had done this to me, I would have gone to the police,” Nevils wrote in the article, recalling how she woke up in her hotel room with blood on her sheets and pain. “His perspective was the reality in the news industry at the time, and if you disagreed with it, you were wrong.”
At the time, Lauer was the longest-running host of the “Today” show with a multimillion-dollar contract. Nevils said she felt trapped because she was in a foreign country known for surveillance and had only other NBC employees and NBC-employed doctors around her.
“I was surrounded by people whose careers depended on Matt’s success, just like mine,” she wrote. “Good quarterbacks have short memories, I told myself. Good soldiers fight another day. Good girls don’t fuss.”
Mr. Lauer denied wrongdoing, insisting that his sexual contact with Mr. Nevils was consensual. He faces multiple charges, but no criminal charges.
When was Matt Lauer fired?
Lauer co-anchored the Today show for 20 years before being fired in November 2017 over complaints of “inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace.”
Following Lauer’s exit from the NBC morning talk show, Variety published the results of a two-month investigation focusing on three women who have identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment allegations by Lauer.
The newspaper reported that Lauer’s “work and sex went hand in hand,” and that during his years covering the Olympics, the anchor regularly invited women to his hotel rooms and to his secluded office at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City.
In a statement to The Associated Press at the time, Lauer said, “While some of the things that have been said about me are false or misconstrued, there is a truth in these stories that is embarrassing and embarrassing.”
Contributor: Anna Kaufman and Edward Segarra, USA TODAY
