What Katie Couric Really Knew About Matt Lauer’s ‘Disturbing’ Behavior Toward Women

Katie Couric is spilling all the tea in her new memoir, Going There — including where she stands with her disgraced former co-host, Matt Lauer!

As you likely know, Lauer got the boot from NBC News in November 2017 after a complaint was filed alleging inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by him, followed by a slew of allegations from women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

After the scandal took shape, Couric made it clear she wasn’t privy to any of the unsavory behavior Matt was allegedly up to behind the scenes during their time at the Today show together, but also mused that a lot of the reports were “blown out of proportion”. Hmm…

Well, Katie sang a much different tune about the whole scandal in a recent chat about her new book, where she acknowledged that “there was a side of Matt I never really knew.”

During an interview with Savannah Guthrie on (where else?) the Today show on Tuesday, Couric said she has “no relationship” with the disgraced journalist, while making sure to double down that she knew absolutely nothing about Lauer’s alleged misconduct at the time it was going down. She told the host:

“It took me a long time to process what was going on because the side of Matt I knew was the side of Matt I think you all knew. He was kind and generous and considerate, a good colleague and, as I got more information and learned what was going on behind the scenes, it was really upsetting and disturbing.”

The 64-year-old TV vet went on to explain that she turned to her own profession to get the full scoop, adding:

“I did some of my own reporting. I talked to people. I really tried to excavate what had been going on. It was really devastating, but also disgusting and, you know, I think what I realized is there was a side of Matt I never really knew and I tried to understand why he behaved the way he did and why he was so reckless and callous and honestly abusive to other women.”

Honestly, it’s a relief to hear her condemn Matt so directly, seeing as Katie was a bit wishy-washy in her initial response to the whole thing. But now, gurl’s really going there — and we’re all about it!

The question is, did she do the about-face because of all the research she did into the “disgusting” behavior? Or because of the backlash she got for initially giving her colleague the benefit of the doubt?

Ch-ch-check out clips from the reporter’s interview (below) for more juicy tidbits from her new book.