TW: This article discusses sexual assault in detail
The woman who accused Matt Lauer of rape has shared more information about the alleged assault. In a new memoir, Brooke Nevils opens up about the shocking alleged incident, which she says took place in 2014. NBC fired Lauer from his role as Today show anchor after the accusation.
Brooke Nevils opened up about the alleged sexual assault
Journalist Brooke has detailed the alleged rape in her new book, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe.
Brooke says the incident took place in 2014, when the pair were in Russia covering the Winter Olympics. She explained that she was drinking in the hotel bar with Lauer and another colleague before ending up in Lauer’s room. She wrote she was: “drunk and alone with Matt Lauer insisting on having anal sex,” per The Cut.
Brooke claims that she woke up the next morning in “undeniable” pain, with her “underwear and the sheet beneath me caked with blood.” She added: “It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to remember.”
Once back in New York, Brooke says she had several consensual sexual encounters with Lauer. She notes that this had led to a “question I have been asked too many times to count, including by Matt himself.” She wrote: “Why, if an alleged victim was really sexually assaulted, would they continue a relationship with the perpetrator? Why would they go back?”
She reasoned that it was her “preexisting relationship” with the TV host that made her “much less likely to immediately recognize it as an assault.”
Brooke filed a complaint against Lauer in 2017, prompting NBC to fire him. Recent reports suggest he’s currently plotting a comeback.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, support is available via the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or online at RAINN.org.
