Matt Lauer speaks out to defend his family after sexual misconduct scandal
Matt Lauer has broken his silence five months after he was fired from NBC following allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
“I have made no public comments on the many false stories from anonymous or biased sources that have been reported about me over these past several months. I remained silent in an attempt to protect my family from further embarrassment and to restore a small degree of the privacy they have lost,” Lauer, 60, said in a statement to The Washington Post, which was published on Thursday, April 26.
“But defending my family now requires me to speak up. I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father and principal at NBC,” he continued. “However I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false.”
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As previously reported, the veteran journalist was terminated from the company in late November 2017 after a colleague accused him of sexual misconduct. Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb tearfully delivered the news live on air on Today and Lauer apologized one day later.
“There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions. To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. As I am writing this I realize the depth of the damage and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC. Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed,” he said in a statement to Us Weekly at the time. “I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.”
As Us exclusively revealed earlier this month, Lauer has since moved out of his family’s home in the Hamptons. He shared the house with his estranged wife, Annette Roque, and their three children — Jack, 16, Romy, 14, and Thijs, 11. In January, he and Roque, 51, quietly began the divorce process.
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