Brooke Nevils, the former NBC talent assistant whose accusations against then-Today anchor Matt Lauer led to his exit from the network, struggled through tears in her first television appearance on CNN this week to discuss what happened and the book she published earlier this year about her experience with the disgraced journalist.
Nevils spoke with CNN anchor Pamela Brown about her book, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe, in a Thursday interview. The book recounts four sexual encounters over several years while she was working under Lauer at NBC, where she served as an assistant to Meredith Vieira, his Today co-host at the time. The memoir also includes interviews with psychologists and other experts who discuss sexual assault and why victims often blame themselves.
“While I was researching this book, I interviewed a forensic psychologist who casually mentioned this EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) report that I then looked up, and it describes these ‘superstar harassers,’” Nevils told Brown, describing the concept of a person so central to a company’s success that they can do no wrong in the eyes of its leadership. “Matt Lauer, at that point at NBC, could literally do no wrong.”
In Unspeakable Things, Nevils details how her professional relationship with Lauer — a top talent figure she was tasked with appeasing and keeping happy — fundamentally changed on the night she went out for drinks with Vieira while covering the Sochi Olympics in Russia, when Lauer joined them. She later describes hiding bloody sheets in her hotel room after Lauer allegedly anally raped her while the two were in Russia to cover the Winter Olympics. That blood, she writes, lingered in her mind as she attempted to convince herself the encounter was normal.
Nevils writes that Lauer contacted her following the initial encounter in Sochi, emailing a note along the lines of, “You don’t call, you don’t write — my feelings are hurt! How are you?” She explains how the message was jarringly confusing and led her to second-guess what had happened, ultimately persuading herself that nothing alarming had occurred. She replied with an innocuous message: “All good,” she writes.
During a subsequent encounter weeks later at his New York home, she writes that Lauer produced towels in case of any bleeding. This, she says, led her to believe he knew she was in pain, despite telling her otherwise.
Following his termination for violating NBC policy, Lauer released a lengthy open letter, which Brown read aloud during the interview.
”This was his first big response and he says:” Brown told Nevils in the interview segment: “The story Brooke tells is filled with false details intended only to create the impression this was an abusive encounter. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was absolutely nothing aggressive about that encounter. Brooke did not do or say anything to object. She certainly did not cry. She was a fully enthusiastic and willing partner. At no time did she behave in a way that made it appear she was incapable of consent. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do. The only concern she expressed was that someone might see her leaving my room. She embraced me at the door as she left.”
Nevils, visibly shaken after hearing the statement, responded when asked how she reacts to his claims.
“Is that easy for me to hear? It makes me feel ashamed, but at the same time, I listen to that and I can’t believe I was ever alone in a room with that person,” she told Brown in the interview, which first aired Thursday.
When asked who the book is for, Nevils recalled the loneliness she felt in the aftermath of the encounters.
“I remember what it felt like to read other women talking about what happened to them — to hear them say things I thought I was the only one to feel, to have been in that position, to have reacted that way. And that moment where you realize you’re not alone — that changes everything,” she said.
Later in the interview, Nevils expanded on that answer, addressing men in positions of power in corporate America.
“Until we talk about the messy gray areas, until we talk about how power impacts someone’s ability to consent — you have to have the power to say yes or no — you have to think about the position you’re putting someone in,” she said. “Otherwise, this is just going to keep happening. That’s why I wrote the book. We have to do better.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Lauer’s agent for comment but did not immediately hear back on Friday.
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