Katie Couric Finally Speaks on Matt Lauer’s Firing

Remember Matt Lauer? He was the longtime host of NBC’s Today show? Then he joined the rest of the exiled celebrity creepsters. And it sounds like it wasn’t for an innocuous reason like not wanting coworkers to know he was goofing off by watching contouring tutorials on YouTube.

Many of Lauer’s former coworkers have revealed their thoughts and feelings about Matt being exposed as an alleged lech. (Hell, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie got a People cover story out of it!) One of Matt’s more prominent colleagues in the industry (and his former co-host on Today for 15 years), Katie Couric, had kept quiet about Matt’s firing. Until now! People must have photos to hang over people’s heads be incredibly persuasive because Katie spoke to them about Matt. And she has ALL the feelings. Katie said:

“The whole thing has been very painful for me,” Couric, 61, tells PEOPLE. “The accounts I’ve read and heard have been disturbing, distressing and disorienting and it’s completely unacceptable that any woman at the Today show experienced this kind of treatment.

Kudos to Katie for that choice example of alliteration while still avoiding the use of the standard “deeply troubling.” She says that she had no clue that Matt was an (alleged) perv. And the Matt SHE knew wouldn’t do such awful things. Apparently she didn’t catch the subtle creep-signaling in TODAY The Musical?

“I think I speak for many of my former colleagues when I say this was not the Matt we knew. Matt was a kind and generous colleague who treated me with respect. In fact, a joke I once made on late-night television was just that, because it was completely contrary to our brother-sister relationship.”

Katie made an appearance on What What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2012 where she joked (?) that Matt “pinches me on the ass a lot” on the Today set. That clip made the rounds when Matt first got canned.


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