http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/29/matt-lauer-long-rumored-to-be-a-womanizer-who-denied-affair-with-natalie-morales/
Matt Lauer: Long rumored to be a 'womanizer' who denied affair with Natalie Morales
MercuryNews.com 1 hour 3 minutes ago
Behind his affable "Today" show persona, Matt Lauer has long been the subject of tabloid rumors that he is a "secret" or "notorious" womanizer.
As Page Six reported Wednesday, shortly after Lauer was fired from NBC, the longtime morning show anchor had been rumored to have engaged in affairs with subordinates at NBC for years. Those were believed to have been consensual, Page Six said.
In 2016, Lauer, 59, famously denied that the demise of an alleged affair with co-anchor Natalie Morales was the reason she left the "Today" show.
The report that NBC bosses received this week, and which apparently led to Lauer's firing, is that he sexually assaulted a female staffer while covering the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Page Six said.
Andrew Lack, the NBC News president, said the network had received a detailed complaint Monday night about inappropriate sexual behavior involving Lauer. The allegation "represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards."
Lack said that this was the first complaint the network had received about Lauer's behavior in the more than 20 years that the on-air personality has been at the network. However, Lack said, "we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident."
TMZ, citing sources close to NBC, said the network had been investigating Lauer for weeks. Multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, also had been working on stories about Lauer and sexual harassment. As one source put it to TMZ, "Lack tried to get ahead of the story before it broke."
Certainly, long before Wednesday's stunning news about Lauer's termination, he had gained a behind-the-scenes reputation as not being such a nice guy.
For one thing, it was well known that Lauer carried a lot of power at NBC, including over decisions about who gets to work there — and who gets fired, Page Six said.
Lauer became the "Today" show co-host in 1997. Paired with Katie Couric, the two dominated network morning news for more than a decade
In 2012, Lauer, who currently earns an estimated $29 million a year, was reported to have helped orchestrate the firing of Ann Curry, a situation that prompted a major fan backlash and scandal for NBC, Vanity Fair reported.
Meanwhile, the possibility that Lauer didn't live up to own self-designed image as the happy, loving husband goes back to at least 2006.
That's when his wife Annette Roque made headlines by filing for divorce when she was pregnant with their third child. She accused Lauer of "cruel and inhumane" behavior. The Daily Mail said that Roque had learned that Lauer had allegedly been having an affair with Morales while the two were covering the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Roque withdrew the filing a month later after they reached a private agreement. But since then, Lauer and his wife have been known to live separate lives, Page Six and the Daily Mail said. She has been living full-time in the Hamptons with their children, while Lauer resides in New York City during the week.
In 2012, Couric revealed in an interview with Andy Cohen that Lauer pinched her "on the ass a lot" according to a clip obtained by TMZ.
Meanwhile, in 2014, reports of marital trouble for Lauer surfaced again, with the National Enquirer saying that Lauer had "walked out on his long-suffering wife" once again before begging her back for the sake of their three kids, according to Refinery29.
But perhaps the most persistent rumor dogging Lauer has had to do with Morales, who started as the "Today" show's newsreader in 2006.
Around the time Curry announced her departure in 2012, Morales was said to be angling for her spot, the Daily Mail said.
But Lauer's wife again threatened to divorce Lauer if Morales was made Lauer's co-host, a position that could mean the two would be working together more closely, the Daily Mail said.
It turns out that Savannah Guthrie was the frontrunner to replace Curry, and subsequently did.
Morales stuck around until July 2016, the month before the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. That's when Morales, who is married, announced she was leaving the "Today" show to move to the West Coast to helm "Access Hollywood."
At that point, both she and Lauer publicly denied rumors that the demise of their alleged affair was the reason she was leaving the "Today" show for "Access Hollywood." (She also continues to serve as the "Today" show's West Coast anchor.)
Lauer took the unprecedented step of calling into The Mike Lupica Podcast to deny the affair rumor, People reported.
He said, "When you feel your family is being threatened and hurt, you speak up. And then you put your head down and go back about your business."
Lauer also told Page Six: "Every aspect of this story is untrue, and it's frankly sad that someone would tell lies to harm everyone involved."
Morales, for her part, also denied the affair report, saying: "There is absolutely no truth to this completely absurd story. It is damaging, hurtful and extremely sexist. I have proven myself in all aspects of my job as a news professional and journalist."
She added that the move was "dictated by me and my desire to grow my career."
This story is developing and more information may be added. It has been updated to include Katie Couric's 2012 comments to Andy Cohen and to correct the Page Six report about when the alleged sexual assault reported to NBC occurred.
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