Former friends of Matt Lauer are seeing less and less of the disgraced newsman.
Five years after his ouster from NBC’s “Today” show — as well as the release of former co-host Katie Couric’s memoir “Going There” in 2021 — Lauer, 64, has “kind of withdrawn from several friendships in the last year.”
A source told People recently that the embattled talk show host “was really upset” by Couric’s book. “She shared their private text messages and she semi-slammed him. It made him lose trust.”
The insider added, “His level of trust has just diminished with a lot of people he considered friends and much of that was because of Katie’s book, and because talking to people from his past is painful.”
In November 2017, Lauer was fired from “Today” over sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.
In the 65-year-old’s tell-all, she described that she “heard the whispers” about Lauer’s bad behavior, including from one female colleague who allegedly confided that she’d received a dirty email from Couric’s co-host.
In her book, Couric claimed that Lauer confessed he was distraught that he “can’t even put [his] arm around” the women who came into his office crying.
She penned that she couldn’t “imagine such a scene taking place,” and reminded Lauer that “he cannot do that — you cannot put your arm around them.”
Elsewhere in her memoir, she insisted that Lauer was a “decent” man despite being fired, and her “heart sank” when she heard the news.
Savannah Guthrie announced the damning report on air during a broadcast of the hit morning news show. “This is a sad morning at ‘Today’ and NBC News,” Guthrie said at the time, adding that she was told of the incident just moments before going live.
“As I’m sure you can understand, we are devastated. I’m heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear friend and partner,” the now-50-year-old anchor continued.
While she noted that she was sad for the woman who accused Lauer of misconduct, she added that “This reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important. It’s long overdue, and it must result in workplaces where all women — all people — feel safe and respected.”
