MATT LAUER ‘EMBARRASSED & ASHAMED’
Lauer apologizes, but calls tale partly ‘untrue’
DISGRACED “Today” host Matt Lauer owned up on Thursday to the sexual misconduct allegations that led to his dismissal from NBC — but tried to downplay some charges as inaccurate.
“Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed,” Lauer said in a statement — his first since the Peacock Network plucked him from its lucrative morning show.
“I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.”
His former “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie read the statement on air Thursday morning.
NBC News announced his firing Wednesday morning after a woman filed a “detailed” complaint accusing him of inappropriate behavior that started at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
Soon after the news broke, more reports came out saying other women accused the TV personality of being a predator.
Lauer, 59, didn’t specify in his statement what might have been “untrue or mischaracterized.”
The longtime host — who’d recently covered the sexual harassment allegations against other newsmen — reportedly has a history of hitting on colleagues.
Variety reported that he even gave a sex toy to one female employee for her birthday — and a note about using it on her.
In a 2016 segment on her talk show, former “Today” co-host Meredith Vieira recalled how she once discovered sex toys in Lauer’s office.
“You had a huge bag of sex toys, yes you did, in your closet, Matt,” Vieira said to Lauer, who was a guest on the show.
Lauer laughed at the comment, saying a sex therapist on the show gave him the bag.
NBC News boss Andrew Lack decided to oust Lauer — who collected about $25 million a year — after a woman made a formal complaint on Monday night.
Lack said Wednesday it was the first complaint NBC News received in the decades Lauer worked there, but there was reason to believe more inappropriate acts were out there.
Lauer is the latest big-name anchor to lose his job after reports of sexual misconduct.
A week earlier, “CBS This Morning” host Charlie Rose was let go by his network, while MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin was booted in October.
Bill O’Reilly, once Fox News’ biggest name, was fired earlier this year after it was revealed he settled several lawsuits.
Lauer had at least one woman still defending him on Thursday — his ex-wife.
Nancy Alspaugh, who was hitched to him from 1981 to 1988, told “Entertainment Tonight” that she never saw him abuse his position.
“I couldn’t imagine that anything that he would have done — that would have been so out of character for him — that would have caused that reaction,” she said.
Jeff Zucker, a former executive producer of “Today,” said at a Business Insider conference on Thursday that the allegations shocked him.
“There was never a suggestion of that type of deviant, predatory behavior, not even a whisper,” said Zucker, now CNN’s president.