Brock Nevils, the former talent assistant at NBC, who was accused at the time-today Anchor Matt Lauer has exited the network, and she fought through tears in her first television appearance on CNN this week to discuss what happened and the book she published earlier this year about her experience with the disgraced journalist.
Nevils spoke with CNN anchor Pamela Brown about her book, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believein an interview Thursday. The book recounts four sexual encounters over several years while she worked under Lauer at NBC, where she served as an assistant to Meredith Vieira, his business partner. today He co-hosted at the time. The memoir also includes interviews with psychologists and other experts who discuss sexual assault and why victims often blame themselves.
“While I was researching this book, I interviewed a forensic psychologist who casually mentioned the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report that I then looked up that describes these ‘star harassers,’” Nevils told Brown, describing the concept of someone who is so central to a company’s success that he can do no wrong in the eyes of its leadership. “Matt Lauer, at that point at NBC, could do no wrong.”
in Unspeakable thingsNevils explains how her professional relationship with Lauer — a top talent tasked with appeasing her and keeping her happy — fundamentally changed the night she went out for drinks with Vieira while covering the Sochi Olympics in Russia, when Lauer joined them. She later described hiding bloodstained sheets in her hotel room after Lauer allegedly anally raped her while they were in Russia covering the Winter Olympics. She wrote that this blood remained in her mind as she tried to convince herself that the encounter was normal.
Nevils wrote that Lauer called her after the initial meeting in Sochi, emailing a note along the lines of: “Don’t call, don’t write — my feelings are hurt! How are you?” She explains how the message was very confusing and led her to guess what happened, and she eventually convinced herself that nothing alarming had happened. She replied with a harmless message: “Everything is fine.”
During a subsequent meeting weeks later at his home in New York, she wrote that Lauer brought towels in case there was any bleeding. She says this led her to believe he knew she was in pain, despite him telling her otherwise.
After his termination for violating NBC policy, Lauer issued a lengthy open letter, which Brown read aloud during the interview.
“This was his first major response and he says,” Brown told Nevils in the interview segment: “The story Brooke tells is full of false details that are only intended to create the impression that this was an abusive encounter. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was absolutely nothing aggressive about this encounter. Brooke did not do or say anything to object. She certainly did not cry. She was a fully enthusiastic and willing partner. At no time did she act in a way that made her appear incapable of consent. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do and that the only concern was What she expressed was that someone might see her leaving my room.
Nevils, who was visibly shaken after hearing the statement, responded when asked for her reaction to his allegations.
“Is it easy for me to hear that? It makes me feel ashamed, but at the same time, I’m listening to that and I can’t believe I was alone in a room with this person,” she told Brown in the interview that first aired Thursday.
When asked who the book was for, Nevils recalled the loneliness she felt in the aftermath of the encounters.
“I remember what it felt like to read other women talking about what had happened to them – to hear them say things that I thought I was the only one who felt that way, that I was in that situation, that I reacted that way,” she said. “And that moment when you realize you’re not alone – that changes everything.”
Later in the interview, Nevils expanded on the answer, addressing men in positions of power in corporate America.
“Until we talk about the messy gray areas, until we talk about how power impacts someone’s ability to consent — you have to have the ability to say yes or no — you have to think about the situation you’re putting someone in,” she said. “Otherwise this will keep happening. That’s why I wrote the book. We have to do better.”
Hollywood Reporter She reached out to Lauer’s agent for comment but did not immediately hear back Friday.
