Matt Lauer Denies Rape Allegations Made By Ronan Farrow In ‘Catch & Kill’

Matt Lauer is denying rape allegations made against him in Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. 

Lauer wrote an op-ed for Mediaite on May 19 where he criticizes Farrow’s journalist style and ethics.  In the piece Lauer acknowledges events that have happened to lead up to the allegation by saying that his relationship with a fellow employee Brooke Nevils was inappropriate, but it was consensual. 

He said, “I say these words with sincerity and humility. I am sorry for the way I conducted myself. I made some terrible decisions, and I betrayed the trust of many people.”

He then went on to deny the most serious allegations. “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,” he said.

In Farrow’s book, Nevils claimed that Lauer had raped her at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in his hotel room. She said, “It was non-consensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent. It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”

In November 2017, Lauer was fired from NBC for “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”

Lauer revealed in his op-ed that he was motivated to write this piece after The New York Times had published an article criticizing Farrow’s journalism and methods of fact checking. Lauer said, “I had originally intended to release this piece in November of 2019, but personal considerations at that time, and later news events impacting us all, delayed those plans. This week The New York Times published a piece that was highly critical of Ronan Farrow’s journalistic methods and standards. Ronan stood by his reporting in response. The Times story prompted me to move forward with my own findings.” 

In response to the op-ed Farrow tweeted, “All I’ll say on this is that Matt Lauer is just wrong. Catch and Kill was thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself.”