Matt Lauer Accuser Felt 'Trapped' and Worried She'd Be 'Blamed' for Disgraced 'Today' Anchor's Alleged Sexual Assault
Matt Lauer's accuser Brooke Nevils spoke out about the alleged sexual abuse.
May 1 2026, Published 7:40 p.m. ET
Brooke Nevils spoke out on her sexual assault allegations against ousted Today show host Matt Lauer for the first time in a televised interview, Breaking Celebrity News can reveal.
The NBC producer claimed she was raped by Lauer in her hotel room at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and she later worried she'd be "blamed."
Brooke Nevils Took 'Years' to Recognize Alleged Abuse
Brook Nevils accused Matt Lauer of raping her at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
On Thursday, April 30, Nevils told CNN’s Pamela Brown that it took her "years" to realize she'd been sexually abused, as her "brain almost just could not compute the idea" that Lauer, who was a beloved staffer at NBC at the time, "could do anything wrong."
Once they arrived back in New York, she said that they continued to have "sexual encounters."
Brooke Nevils said she worried she'd be 'blamed' if anyone found out about the alleged abuse.
"The first thing that happened was he suggested I come meet him in his apartment," Nevils said. "When you’re sitting in the dressing room of the anchor of The Today Show in Studio 1-A, are you really in a position to say no? Of course you’re not."
"And that just happened again and again. And the most confusing part of it was that every single time, I thought I was fixing it, I was taking back control — but really what I was doing was implicating myself and my own abuse," she continued. "By the time I understood that I was trapped, I knew I was going to be blamed for all of it. And I blamed myself."
Matt Lauer Was Fired in 2017
Matt Lauer was fired from the 'Today' show in 2017.
Nevils finally made an official complaint against Lauer in 2017, leading to his firing. At the time, Lauer denied the allegations, insisting that their encounters had been "completely mutual and consensual," and he has never been charged with any criminal wrongdoing in connection with her accusations.
But even after he was ousted from NBC, the producer said she'd practiced "avoidance" so adeptly that she was confused when someone attempted to find out how she was feeling.
"Someone asked me, you know, how I was doing with the trauma of what had happened to me, and I was just like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking — I have plenty of problems, but trauma isn’t one of them. I’m fine,'" she recalled.
Nevils noted that avoidance was a "classic symptom of PTSD" that she'd failed to recognize.
Matt Lauer's Denial Was 'Devastating' for Brooke Nevils
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Matt Lauer denied the allegations.
Nine months later, when she took time off from her job – which Nevils explained had "essentially" been her "entire identity" for years – it hit her all at once.
"You know, as long as I was a producer at NBC, then I had to have been okay because I was doing this incredibly important, hard job that I loved, and all of a sudden I wasn’t fine anymore," she revealed. "I didn’t want to live anymore. I couldn’t live with myself anymore."
As for Lauer's denial, she called it "devastating."
Nevils added, "It’s hard to fathom how you could argue that you’re completely unaware that someone’s ability to consent might be compromised when you are in a position of power over a subordinate and you know that that subordinate’s job is, essentially, to do whatever they have to do to keep you happy."
