Today‘s Ann Curry is speaking out in support of former NBC producer Brooke Nevils, who accused Matt Lauer of rape in 2017.
“I remember Brooke as good-hearted and credible, with great potential,” Curry, 69, told People in a statement on Thursday, January 29. “She is also brave.”
Nevils previously alleged that she was anally raped by Lauer, 68, in Sochi, Russia, while covering the 2014 Winter Olympics. He was fired by NBC three years later following a complaint about “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident,” read a letter from NBC News chairman Andrew Lack in 2017. “Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender. We are deeply saddened by this turn of events.”
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In an excerpt from her upcoming book, Unspeakable Things, available February 3, Nevils shared more details from the alleged Sochi incident, as well as a separate encounter with Lauer that allegedly occurred at a New York City apartment after the Olympics. She claimed there were “four more instances” between them over the next few months.
“It would take years — and a national reckoning with sexual harassment and assault — before I called what happened to me assault,” Nevils wrote.
In 2019, Lauer vehemently denied Nevils’ rape allegations, claiming in a letter shared via his lawyer that the former colleagues had an “extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter.” (Nevils alleged in Ronan Farrow‘s book Catch and Kill that she was “too drunk to consent” and told Lauer “multiple times” that she didn’t want to have anal sex.)
Curry, for her part, hosted the Today show alongside Lauer from 2010 to 2011. She left NBC News in 2015 after nearly 25 years at the network.
As NBC cut ties with Lauer in 2017, Curry told The Washington Post that she reported him on behalf of a colleague in 2012. A female staffer allegedly confided in Curry that she was being “sexually harassed physically” by Lauer.
“She was afraid of losing her job … I believed her,” Curry recalled. “I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women.”
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At the time, an NBC spokesperson told the Post that they didn’t have a record of Curry’s complaint, which was not noted in Lauer’s personnel file.
Curry then came to Nevils’ defense in 2019 after Catch and Kill was released. “Brooke Nevils is a credible young woman of good character. She came to NBC News an eager and guileless 20-something, brimming with talent,” Curry wrote via social media. “I believe she is telling the truth. And that breaks my heart.”
Following reports of tension between the former cohosts, a source exclusively told Us Weekly in 2019 that Curry could know more than what was shared publicly.
“Ann has maintained a dignified silence, but a lot of people confided in her years ago and still do to this day,” the insider told Us in 2019. “She knows more than most about the man Matt really is, and when she finally speaks out, it will destroy him.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
