Couric and Lauer were co-anchors on “Today” for nearly a decade. Lauer has denied Nevils’ accusations.

Katie Couric praises Matt Lauer’s rape accuser Brooke Nevils for releasing explosive memoir: ‘She’s very brave’

Couric and Lauer were co-anchors on "Today" for nearly a decade. Lauer has denied Nevils' accusations.

By Staff Author

April 25, 2026 11:56 a.m. ET

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Katie Couric; Matt Lauer. Credit:

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty; Michael Ostuni/Patrick McMullan via Getty

- Former *Today* cohost Katie Couric praised Brooke Nevils for releasing her explosive memoir, which details Matt Lauer's alleged sexual misconduct.

- Nevils, a former NBC employee, accused Lauer of raping her. Lauer has denied the accusations.

- "She's very brave," said Couric, who was an anchor with Lauer on *Today* for nearly a decade.

Katie Couric is praising Brooke Nevils for her candid memoir, *Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe.*

The former *Today* show co-host expressed her respect for Nevils — who accused Couric's former co-anchor Matt Lauer of sexual assault — in a new interview published Saturday.

"I feel terrible for her," Couric told Page Six when asked to for her thoughts on Nevils' memoir. "I think she's very brave to write the book." Couric added that although she hasn't fully read the whole book, she has "read an excerpt."

Couric and Lauer worked together as co-anchors on from 1997 to 2006. The *Next Question With Katie Couric* podcast host left the show before Lauer was fired in 2017, after Nevils came forward about the alleged sexual assault, which she claims took place during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Several other women came forward with allegations against Lauer, after which his wife of 19 years, Annette Roque, filed for divorce.

Lauer has not been charged with any crimes. He previously confirmed that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with Nevils, but denied the rape allegations, saying his encounters with her and other women who accused him of sexual misconduct were consensual.

Matt Lauer and Katie Couric in 2015.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Nevils' memoir, which recounts her relationship with the former broadcaster, was released in February.

In an excerpt published in The Cut days before the book came out, the former *Today* show talent assistant said her life had been upended by the scandal.

"After his firing was announced the next morning — Wednesday, November 29, 2017 — the [*New York*] *Times* and *Variety* published a slew of other allegations against Matt," Nevils wrote. "The next day, an investigative reporter was texting my personal cell phone. Eventually a tabloid began calling my co-workers at 30 Rock, apparently asking whether they were aware that I was Matt's 'mistress who'd gotten him fired.'"

Nevils took a leave of absence from NBC that would "ultimately prove permanent" as she struggled in the aftermath of the allegations, and seeked mental health treatment.

"Soon I would find myself in a psych ward," she wrote, "believing myself so worthless and damaged that the world would be better off without me."

Eventually, she wrote, she "rebuilt" her life, marrying and and having two children.

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In response to her rape allegations in the book, NBC said in a statement at the time: "Matt Lauer's conduct was appalling, horrific, and reprehensible, as we said at the time. That's why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague."

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In a 2019 letter to *Variety*, Lauer denied raping Nevils, claiming their relationship was an "extramarital affair" that it was "completely consensual. However, he said in another statement that "there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed."

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