THIS MEANS WAR
Dishonored journalist Matt Lauer retaliates against Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, claiming he feels betrayed by his former colleagues.
On May 17, The New York Times published an article titled “Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?” and Matt Lauer, one of the subjects of the investigative journalist’s 2019 book Catch and Kill, which details former NBC staffer Brooke Nevils’ rape claims against Lauer (which led to his firing from Today), penned an op-ed on the site Mediaite with his answer: Yes. (Lauer has admitted to consensual sex with Nevils but denies accusations of rape.) Lauer claims in the op-ed that his former colleagues’ rush to judgment left him “shaken, but not surprised” — and now a source tells Us that Savannah Guthrie, Lauer’s former friend and cohost, is one of those colleagues. Guthrie called the allegations “appalling” at the time, and the source says Lauer was “upset”: “She refused then and still refuses to listen to what Matt has to say. From the second the story came out, he feels Savannah jumped on the opportunity to bury him.”
HE SAID, THEY SAID Lauer, 62, was also “stunned” by Meredith Vieira’s public support of Nevils, adds another insider, but his perceived betrayal by Hoda Kotb “runs much deeper.” (Us previously reported that Kotb doesn’t keep in touch with Lauer.) “Matt’s angry because Hoda took his job and never looked back,” says the insider.
“In his opinion, she should have been supportive and shocked about the allegations.” Lauer — who was spotted on May 20 with a new forearm tattoo that says “Hatred corrodes the container it is carried in” — is still resentful of his former friends. Says the first source, “He can’t let go of the past.”