Among the many revelations expected in Ronan Farrow’s forthcoming book recounting his investigation of Harvey Weinstein is new information surrounding the sexual assault allegations that led to Matt Lauer’s 2017 firing from NBC News.
Variety reported that Farrow’s book, Catch and Kill, features an interview with Brooke Nevils, the former NBC News employee who accused Lauer of sexual assault. The details of the assault, including Nevils’ identity, are made public in Farrow’s book for the first time.
In the book, Nevils claims Lauer anally raped her in a hotel room during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Variety reported.
In the account Farrow recorded, Nevils alleges she and former Today show co-anchor Meredith Vieira ran into Lauer at a hotel bar where the NBC News team was staying. Nevils later went to Lauer’s hotel room, where he allegedly pushed her against a door and kissed her before pushing her on a bed and forcibly penetrating her. According to Farrow’s account, Lauer asked Nevils “if she liked anal sex,” and Nevils “declined several times.” Farrow also writes that Nevils recalled the event as “excruciatingly painful.”
“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” Nevils reportedly told Farrow in the book. “It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”
After returning to New York City, Nevils continued to have sexual encounters with Lauer. “What is not in dispute is that Nevils, like several of the women I’d spoken to, had further sexual encounters with the man she said assaulted her,” writes Farrow. “This is what I blame myself most for,” Nevils tells Farrow in the book.
Lauer has since responded to the accusations in an open letter, sent to Variety Wednesday by the former NBC host’s lawyers. Lauer has denied Nevils’ claims, and says the account she gave Farrow is “filled with false details intended only to create the impression this was an abusive encounter.” Lauer maintains his sexual encounters with Nevils, both those that occurred in Sochi and throughout their subsequent affair were “mutual and completely consensual.”
Catch and Kill will be available October 15.
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
