Matt Lauer Says He was "falsely accused of rape"
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Disgraced NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer has penned an op-ed piece for Mediaite.
Lauer is slamming Ronan Farrow's reporting in the best-selling book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators.
The book has been out for months and Lauer is now speaking up, claiming that he had “consensual, yet inappropriate relationship with a fellow employee in the workplace.”
He added, “I say these words with sincerity and humility," he wrote. "I am sorry for the way I conducted myself. I made some terrible decisions, and I betrayed the trust of many people.”
But he denied former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils' allegation, in Catch and Kill, that he raped her. “This accusation was one of the worst and most consequential things to ever happen in my life, it was devastating for my family, and outrageously it was used to sell books.
In talking about the day he was fired from NBC, Lauer writes, “I was shaken, but not surprised, that few in the media were willing to thoroughly challenge the accusations against me, or the person making them. The rush to judgement was swift. In fact, on the morning I was falsely accused of rape, and before I could even issue a statement, some journalist were already calling my accuser 'brave' and courageous.' While the presumption of innocence is only guaranteed in a court of law, I felt journalists should have, at the very least, recognized and considered it.”
Both Farrow and Nevils responded to Lauer on Twitter:
