Katie Couricis continuing to reflect on her relationship with her formerTodayco-hostMatt Lauerand the sexual harassment allegations against him.
In PEOPLE’s cover story last week, Couric, 64, 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.”
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“I think what I realized is that there was a side of Matt I never really knew. I tried to understand why he behaved the way he did, and why he was so reckless, and callous, and honestly abusive to other women,” Couric continued, adding that they have “no relationship” today.
Nevils went public toRonan Farrowfor his 2019 bookCatch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. To Farrow, Nevilsalleged that Lauer raped herin his hotel room at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where she was working for NBC’sMeredith Vieira. Lauer has said all of his encounters were consensual.
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“We got to the point where everything had just deteriorated my level of trust in him, my knowledge of things that had been going on, my actual reporting on what had transpired for my own process,” she said.
“I think he probably feels like I wasn’t there for him and I feel like what he did was unconscionable. So I think it was really hard for us to meet under those circumstances,” she added.
Matt Lauer and Katie Couric.James Devaney/WireImage
As for whether she would ever reconnect with her on-air partner of nine years, Couric said she’s unsure.
“I sort of doubt it,” she said. “But I hope that he’s reconciled his behavior. He seems like he’s very defiant about it. So I don’t know. I really don’t. That’s unknowable at this point.”
Couric noted that she “had no idea” about his alleged behavior at the time.
“In terms of the kind of things that he was accused of and what he got fired for it, I had no idea. I had no idea,” she said. “I think that he was very secretive and compartmentalized about this behavior.”
“When there’s a permissive culture, I think that’s when more serious transgressions can also take place,” Couric said. “So I’m really happy that we’ve had this reckoning and that we understand power dynamics — we understand that a consensual relationship is not necessarily consensual at all when there is a power differential. I hope the environment has changed dramatically for women and for diversity in general because I think that’s really important.”
source: people.com
