Brooke Nevils, who famously accused now-disgraced journalist Matt Lauer of sexual assault in 2017, couldn’t hold back her emotions as she recalled her experience with her alleged “superstar harasser” while discussing her book, “Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe,” in a Thursday interview.
“While I was researching this book, I interviewed a forensic psychologist who casually mentioned this EEOC report that I then looked up and it describes these ‘superstar harassers,'” Nevils told CNN anchor Pamela Brown.
The office committee’s report warned employers of these potential “rain makers” who “are perceived to be so valuable to a company that they can do no wrong.”
“Matt Lauer, at that point, at NBC could literally do no wrong,” Nevils said of the ex-“Today” show anchor elsewhere in the interview, explaining that it was “unthinkable” to believe her accusations could “be anything other than a misunderstanding.”
Nevils previously alleged that Lauer, now 68, anally raped her in his hotel room while she was working as Meredith Vieira‘s personal assistant and covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. At the time, she claimed she was drunk and could not consent.
She later shared that she and Lauer continued having “sexual” interactions after they returned to New York.
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“My job was to smooth things over for the talent. So, I thought, ‘This, I know how to do. i can smooth this over.’ So, I went back and when I went back, the first thing that happened was he suggested I come meet him in his apartment,” she said in her Thursday interview.
“When you’re sitting in the dressing room of the anchor of the ‘Today’ show in Studio 1A, are you really in a position to say no? Of course, you’re not. And that just happened again and again.”
“The most confusing part of it was that every single time, I thought I was fixing it. i was taking back control, but really, I was implicating myself in my own abuse. Then, by the time I understood that I was trapped, I knew I was going to be blamed for all of it. And I blamed myself,” she explained.
A rep for Lauer did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
In 2017, Nevils filed a formal complaint against Lauer and — within 24 hours — Lauer was fired from his post on the “Today” show and NBC, and several other women came forward with accusations against him.
In her memoir, Nevils recounts the alleged assault in graphic detail.
“It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to remember,” she shares. She goes on to share that Lauer emailed her later that day with a message that read, “You don’t call, you don’t write — my feelings are hurt! How are you?”
“I had no idea how to respond, but I knew that to ask anyone for help would only make it worse,” Nevils writes in her memoir. “Shameful secrets are like that. To trust anyone is to give them power over you. I was totally alone, drowning in plain sight.”
“Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe” is currently available for purchase wherever books are sold.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
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