NBC Employee Who Accused Matt Lauer of Rape Admits to Spending Time in Psych Ward

The former NBC producer who accused Matt Lauer of raping her in 2014 admitted she spent time in a "psych ward" after the alleged incident.

Brooke Nevils filed a complaint against Lauer in 2017. She writes about her sexual experiences with Lauer in her memoir Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe, which will be released on February 3.

In an excerpt from the book published on The Cut this week, Nevils opened up about the alleged 2014 experience. "My first thought when I woke up, underwear and the sheet beneath me caked with blood, was, This must have been a misunderstanding," the excerpt begins.

Brooke Nevils Was Working In Russia During The 2014 Olympics

Nevils noted she was in Sochi, Russia, as a talent assistant during the Winter Olympics when she and her boss and mentor, Meredith Vieira, decided to have a celebratory drink. Vieira had just been named the first woman in history to anchor the Olympics during prime time coverage. Lauer, who worked with both at NBC, joined the pair.

"Despite the rounds of vodka shots, the overwhelming power differential, and the bloody underwear and sheets, I would never have used the word 'rape' to describe what had happened," Nevils worte. "Even now, I hear 'rape' and think of masked strangers in dark alleys. Back then, I had no idea what to call what happened other than weird and humiliating. But then there was the pain, which was undeniable. It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to remember."

Brooke Nevils Explains Why She Didn't Go To The Police

Nevils opted against reporting the alleged assault to authorities at the time. In the memoir, she explains that the idea of doing so "was an utterly useless thought to have."

"Who would I call? Putin? The KGB? There was only NBC, and Matt Lauer was Today’s longest-serving anchor with the biggest contract in the 60-year history of morning television, worth a reported $25 million a year," she added. "In the news business back then, his point of view was reality, and if you disagreed with it, you were wrong. The whole thing had to have been my fault."

Nevils attempted to continue to work at NBC following the incident, but ultimately took a leave of absence that turned into a full departure.

"I barely recognized the train wreck I’d become," she said of the time after she reported the incident to NBC. "I was compulsive, paranoid, and drinking all the time. I felt I’d ruined everything, hurt and embarrassed everyone I loved. Soon I would find myself in a psych ward, believing myself so worthless and damaged that the world would be better off without me."

Matt Lauer Has Denied Brooke Nevils' Allegations

To date, Lauer denies the allegations against him and maintains that the pair's encounter was consensual. The former news anchor published a lengthy letter in his defense in 2019 in response to Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill, which included Nevils' allegations.

Lauer wrote: "In a new book, it is alleged that an extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter I have previously admitted having, was in fact an assault. It is categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense. I had an extramarital affair with Brooke Nevils in 2014. It began when she came to my hotel room very late one night in Sochi, Russia. We engaged in a variety of sexual acts. We performed oral sex on each other, we had vaginal sex, and we had anal sex. Each act was mutual and completely consensual."

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