Today’s Matt Lauer is ‘attempting a comeback’ 5 years after being fired from the show over sexual assault allegations

THE disgraced ex-Today Show host Matt Lauer is looking to make a comeback.

He was fired from the morning show in November 2017 over allegations of sexual assault.

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A source and friend close to Matt told PageSix that although he’s been retired for the past five years, he’s “considering returning to media.”

“He thinks he should be able to make a comeback,” a source said.

Some of his friends want him, like Megyn Kelly, a conservative journalist and media personality, to push the envelope and get back into business “on his own terms.”

Megyn said many controversial things, including saying that “black face” and “white face” are okay because it’s Halloween.

She was eventually released.

However, Matt was fired due to many complaints about “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”

In 1997 he became a presenter for Today alongside Katie Couric.

He then eventually sat alongside Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry and Savannah Guthrie before being fired in 2017.

Now Savannah and Hoda Kotb serve as lead co-anchors.

THE CLAIMS

In 2017, many allegations against Matt came to light.

He was accused of sexually assaulting former NBC staffer Brooke Nevils in 2014.

She claimed he assaulted her in a hotel room at the Sochi 2014 Olympics, but Matt insisted it was consensual.

Brook claimed in Ronan Farrow’s 2019 book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators that she was “too drunk to agree to anything” and has stated multiple times that she didn’t want to have sex.

Also in 2014, Matt reportedly had an affair with another NBC star, but her identity was kept secret.

However, the former broadcaster denied doing anything wrong with her.

Then came accusations from The New York Times, Variety, and others.

A complaint came from another NBC star, who said Matt sexually assaulted her in his office in 2001.

He’s also made inappropriate comments about her since she first joined the network in the 1990s.

According to Variety, three anonymous women accused the former host of sexual harassment.

They claimed he once brought a clerk into his office and then “dropped his pants and showed her his penis.”

He also allegedly gave a sex toy to a former employee and told her how he “intended to use it on her.”

In December 2017, former Today Show contributor Addie Zinone released details of her affair with Matt.

She told Variety that she had a month-long affair with him in 2000 when she was a production assistant at NBC and he was newly married.

After all of this came to light, his wife Annette Roque filed for divorce in 2019.

GONE TOMORROW

Back in November, an insider revealed to People that Matt remains “reclusive” and upset with his ex co-host Katie after she leaked lyrics in a book.

A source close to Matt, 64, has come forward and said he has been “withdrawn” from many of whom he once considered close friends.

“He was really upset about Katie Couric’s book,” a source told People.

“She shared her private text messages and half spanked him. It made him lose confidence,” the source continued.

“His level of trust just went down with a lot of people he considered friends and a lot of that was because of Katie’s book and the pain of talking to people from his past.”

The source added that Matt is a “half empty nester who doesn’t work” as his two older children Jack, 21, and Romy, 19, are in college and his youngest child, 16-year-old Thijs, is attending End of high school nearing.

KATIE’S COMMENTS

Although Matt has denied any wrongdoing, his co-host Katie Couric spoke out against him and included their texting conversations in her October 2021 memoir. going there

Katie also spoke to People around the book launch, saying that when she heard the allegations it was “really, really hard” and it took her “a long time to process what was going on.

“The side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt you all knew. He was kind, generous, considerate, a good colleague,” she explained.

“I got more information and learned more about what was going on behind the scenes. And then I reported it myself, talked to people, tried to dig up what was going on. It was really devastating and also disgusting.

“I think I realized there was a side of Matt that I never really knew. I was trying to understand why he acted the way he did and why he was so inconsiderate and callous and honestly insulted other women,” Katie claims.

Couric also said she was “shocked” and called his actions “grossly inappropriate.”

“This isn’t the Matt I knew. Humans have a duality, and sometimes they don’t let you see both sides.”

Since the allegations, Matt has been living quietly with his girlfriend Shamin Abas.

He has been in a relationship with the PR manager since 2021.

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