LAUER’S OLYMPIC SEX PANIC
When the Daily News ran a 2014 front page story screaming that “A secret, steamy relationship between one of NBC’s best-known on-air personalities and a network executive” had been put on hold during the Sochi Olympics, we weren’t talking about Matt Lauer. But he wondered if we were. A well-placed industry source tells us that the “Today” show host (photo), who was fired by NBC on Wednesday over sexual misconduct allegations, asked around to see if he was the unnamed subject of our report. In that cover story, we wrote that the unnamed pair feared that if they continued “their naughty behavior” overseas, they risked being exposed by “eavesdropping Russian agents at the Olympics.” Before the games got underway, NBC released a memo warning employees that they should not expect privacy if they use their electronic devices for personal matters while in Russia.
Why Lauer was concerned about our story is unclear to our insider — and to us as well. But we’re told that at the time, he asked people with media insight if The News was hinting that he’d done something wrong — and was assured by his handlers that he needn’t worry. According to People magazine, Lauer was fired because of misconduct in 2014, “including at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.”
We wrote in January 2014 that an NBC exec who’d admitted to a fling that became a “sexting bonanza” spanning 20 years was frustrated that her partner in dirty texting would be out of reach until the Olympics came to an end. Coincidentally, Lauer, who started at “Today” in 1994 before becoming a host in 1997, had been with the popular NBC program exactly 20 years when we published our story.
But we had no reason at the time to believe Lauer had been involved in tawdry behavior.
Host Savannah Guthrie announced at the start Wednesday’s “Today” show that her colleague, who turns 60 in December, had been cut loose.
NBC did not respond to a request for comment.