NEWSMatt Lauer's Rape Accuser Brooke Nevils Ended Up in a 'Psych Ward' as the Aftermath Turned Her Into a 'Compulsive Train Wreck'
In Brooke Nevils' upcoming memoir, she revealed that after reporting Matt Lauer for allegedly raping her, she went on a downward spiral.
Jan. 28 2026, Published 3:17 p.m. ET
Former NBC staffer Brooke Nevils — who in 2017, accused disgraced TV star Matt Lauer of anally raping her three years prior — is sharing more insight into the trauma she endured after reporting her coworker.
In her upcoming memoir, Unspeakable Things, Nevils admitted she went on a downward spiral, with things becoming so bad that she felt the need to take a leave of absence from her job.
Brooke Nevils Recalls Falling Apart After the Scandal Broke
Brooke Nevils struggled so much after reporting Matt Lauer that she took a leave of absence from her job at NBC.
"The day after I made my complaint, Matt was questioned by NBC and fired," Nevils recalled in an excerpt from her book, noting that major publications followed up by exposing several other allegations made against him by different women.
"The next day, an investigative reporter was texting my personal cell phone. Eventually a tabloid began calling my coworkers at 30 Rock, apparently asking whether they were aware that I was Matt’s ‘mistress who’d gotten him fired,’" she spilled. "After that, I made it a few more months before taking a leave of absence that would ultimately prove permanent."
Brooke Nevils Entered a Psych Ward
Nevils' downward spiral became so out of control that she wound up in a 'psych ward.'
Nevils explained that taking a step back from her career took a serious toll on her, as when she first joined NBC, she was just giving studio tours. After a decade, she had worked her way up to a "salaried prime-time news producer."
"Now that life was gone, and I barely recognized the train wreck I’d become. I was compulsive, paranoid, and drinking all the time," she confessed. "I felt I’d ruined everything, hurt and embarrassed everyone I loved."
"Soon I would find myself in a psych ward, believing myself so worthless and damaged that the world would be better off without me," she shockingly added.
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The Author Admits She Blamed Herself
Nevils reported the incident in 2017, three years after it took place.
Elsewhere in her tome, Nevils explained that she didn't report the sexual assault right away because she partly blamed herself.
"The whole thing had to have been my fault. I had given him the wrong idea, failed to be clear, failed to convince him, failed to stop him, failed to find a graceful way out of the situation without embarrassing him," she penned. "I certainly should not have bled. The only thing to do was to smooth it over, and smoothing things over for the talent was my actual day job. That, at least, I knew how to do."
The former 'Today' anchor claimed his encounter with Nevils was consensual.
She also didn't know who to tell since the alleged incident happened while they were in Sochi, Russia, for the Olympics.
"Who would I call? [Vladimir] Putin? The KGB?" she questioned. "There was only NBC, and Matt Lauer was Today’s longest-serving anchor with the biggest contract in the 60-year history of morning television, worth a reported $25 million a year. In the news business back then, his point of view was reality, and if you disagreed with it, you were wrong."
Lauer — who was still married to ex-wife Annette Roque at the time — as insisted the encounter was consensual.
