Couric Calls Lauer Scandal Devastating and Disgusting

Katie Couric is done with Matt Lauer. The former Today Show co-hosts have no relationship at all anymore, Couric told current Today host Savannah Guthrie. Not long after Lauer’s disgrace during the #MeToo movement in 2017, Couric defended him guardedly, saying he had always treated her well, and insisting his creepy door-closing button wasn’t a "nefarious thing.” But in interviews to promote her new memoir, Going There, she says she’s learned more about the scandal and is done with him. "It was really devastating, but also disgusting," Couric said. She said she reached out to him around the time he was fired in 2017 amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault, texting, "Matt, I am crushed. I love you and care about you deeply," per the Washington Post.

Then, she wrote in her book, she did her own reporting about the scandal. "I know Matt thinks I betrayed him, and that makes me sad," she wrote, but he betrayed her, too, with his behavior. Couric also addressed other #MeToo issues in the book and in the interview. "I wanted to kind of share the messy parts, what real life was like," she told Guthrie on Today. She said it took a really long time to process what was going on with the allegations against Lauer. She didn’t rule out ever reconnecting with him, either. "That’s unknowable at this point," she said. (More Katie Couric stories.)