Disgraced former US TV host Matt Lauer has been accused of rape by an NBC News colleague.
WATCH: Today show host’s emotional reaction to Matt Lauer rape allegation
According to Variety, in a new book by Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill, Brooke Nevils accused the ousted Today show host of anally raping her in a Sochi hotel room in 2014 during the network’s Olympic coverage.
In the book, Brooke alleges that she ended up in Matt’s hotel room after meeting him at the bar.
Once she was in his hotel room, Brooke alleges, Matt pushed her against the door and kissed her. He then pushed her onto the bed, “flipping her over, asking if she liked anal sex,” Farrow writes. “She said that she declined several times.”
According to Brooke, she “was in the midst of telling him she wasn’t interested again when he ‘just did it,’” Farrow writes.
“Matt, she said, didn’t use lubricant. The encounter was excruciatingly painful. ‘It hurt so bad. I remember thinking, Is this normal?’ She told me she stopped saying no, but wept silently into a pillow.”
Matt then asked her if she liked it. She tells him yes. She claims that “she bled for days,” Farrow writes.
Brooke tells Farrow: “It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” she says. “It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”
In an open letter provided to Variety by his lawyer, Matt Lauer, who joined NBC in 1992, denies any wrongdoing.
“In a new book, it is alleged that an extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter I have previously admitted having, was in fact an assault,” Matt says.
“It is categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense.”
Matt Lauer was sensationally fired from the NBC news show in 2017 after allegations of sexual harassment came to light.
In a statement read on-air Wednesday on the Today show, NBC News said: “Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time. That’s why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague.”
If you’ve been sexually assaulted, you can get help and support. Call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800respect.org.au