Variety details lurid allegations against fired Today host Matt Lauer

Details about why Matt Lauer was fired from NBC have been published by Variety.
(Image credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

NBC News' Matt Lauer was terminated Wednesday morning over unspecified "inappropriate sexual" workplace behaviors, the details of which were later released as part of a two-month investigation by Variety involving dozens of interviews with current and former staff. The allegations include Lauer gifting a colleague a sex toy and "an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her," quizzing female producers about who they'd slept with, and dropping his pants in front of an employee and then getting angry when she refused his advances.

Lauer "couldn't sleep around town with celebrities or on the road with random people, because he's Matt Lauer and he's married," one producer said, noting that the host also had many consensual relationships with coworkers. "So he'd have to do it within his stable, where he exerted power, and he knew people wouldn't ever complain."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.