Matt Lauer Allegedly Had An Affair With An NBC Broadcaster And Abused His Power With Another

I didn’t pick this picture of the TODAY show team with any specific implication in mind. I simply chose an old picture from about ten years ago, because we’re about to dive into some older allegations about Matt Lauer. Ronan Farrow’s book, Catch and Kill, continues to give us more icky stories. These latest ones don’t have any allegations of rape, but they do have Matt allegedly getting with a co-worker, allegedly treating a co-worker like a “piece of meat” before pushing them out, and allegedly trying to get a job for Pippa Middleton.

We’ll start with the alleged affair. And it allegedly was an affair, so Matt doesn’t have to write another long denial. A TV source that recently spoke to Page Six claims that Matt had an affair with a “famed and well-respected broadcaster” a few years ago. The woman in question requested she not be named, but will say that she was forced to sign an NDA when she eventually left NBC. The source claims that no matter what consent was involved, it was always going to be a sketchy situation, because Matt was at the top of the food chain:

“Matt had influence over everyone’s career – one word and your career would be sunk. I know there was a clear imbalance of power in this woman’s relationship with Matt.”

Matt apparently did this to others as well. In Catch and Kill, Ronan writes about one of Matt’s fellow on-camera personalities who claims that Matt sexually harassed her.

Farrow reports that the unnamed former NBC broadcaster claimed Lauer and another NBC exec propositioned her and made lewd comments about her during broadcasts. She said, “I was like meat on a hook…I would walk into work with a knot in my stomach. I would come home and cry.”

The woman alleges that when she turned Matt and the NBC executive down, she was “punished” by getting fewer assignments. Eventually everything went to shit for her.

“My career took a sharp nosedive.” Although she didn’t make a formal report to HR, she did tell colleagues. When she left, NBC forced her to sign a nondisclosure agreement that waived her right to sue and banned her from making disparaging comments about the network, the book states.

She states that she decided not to make a formal complaint because she was scared it would tarnish her image. Page Six says that NBC News president Noah Oppenheim addressed the most recent allegations, by saying that no records had been found of inappropriate messages from Lauer to the woman Farrow mentioned, and that she signed a standard NDA.

The identity of that woman hasn’t been disclosed in the book. But we do know that the woman left NBC in 2012, although it might not have been her choice. The implication in Ronan’s book is that she was pushed out. Former TODAY show host Natalie Morales was rumored to be leaving the show in 2012 after being plagued by rumors of an affair with Matt Lauer. But Natalie has remained with the NBC family, just on the west coast. Ann Curry was rumored to have been pushed off the TODAY show couches in 2012. However, Ann also stuck around with the NBC family.

So onto Pippa Middleton. A source tells Page Six that Matt really wanted to hire Pippa as an NBC correspondent, because I guess he was pretty booty-blinded after seeing her at the Royal Wedding in 2011. The source says that Matt shut down a steakhouse on the Upper East Side in an attempt to woo Pippa to NBC. Pippa was there with her publicist, and Matt brought along several senior TODAY show staff members. Matt personally interviewed Pippa on TODAY in 2014, and he allegedly set up a test shoot in Montana, which…didn’t go well.

[It] turned out to be “excruciating,” according to a source. “Pippa wasn’t comfortable with any of it. Buckingham Palace was putting her under tremendous pressure not to go forward or cause any embarrassment to her sister. Matt and Pippa were never alone, and she wasn’t really interested in the job, but nevertheless NBC staffers were nervous about Matt’s interest in Pippa.”

Eventually Matt’s then-boss at NBC News, Deborah Turness, allegedly told him to drop the idea of hiring Pippa and move on. Which was a good call, because what in the world would Pippa have reported on? She’s not exactly a journalist. It’s better this way. She never had to overhear Matt Lauer turn to an NBC exec and make a disgusting joke about wanting to put the tip-a in Pippa.

Pic: Wenn.com