Matt Lauer had glowing words for his former “Today” colleague, Katie Couric.
The NBC anchor stopped by Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show yesterday and chatted about his relationship with Couric, his co-host from 1994-2006.
Couric, 56, admitted in her own interview with Stern back in May that she had a “little crush” on Lauer. When the shock jock brought up the remark, Lauer joked, “No, she writes me [Gustav] Mahler letters all the time.” (The composer was famous for writing intensely romantic letters to his wife.)
Asked if he ever felt the same way about her, Lauer, 55, replied, “I think America…every man in America was attracted [to Couric].”
“She’s a very attractive woman, not only physically, but her personality,” Lauer said. “If she’s a 9 or 10 physically, she’s a 14 because – I hate to do that – because she’s got a great personality. She’s fun.”
“It’s like the St. Pauli Girl commercial: You always remember your first,” Lauer quipped of Couric.
He continued, “Was it always easy? No…We worked together for 10 years. Was every day a bed of roses? No, of course not.
“We had our moments where there was probably tension, but overall, we are very much the same person. We have very similar senses of humor, and I thought we had a good and easy chemistry.”
Lauer said he never considered pursuing a romance with her, as it “absolutely” would have ruined things, he said. Then he joked, “She would have been knocking on my door constantly. She would have never left me alone.”
He also gushed about his relationship with Couric’s replacement, Meredith Vieira. “I had a relationship with Meredith where I constantly wanted to hug her,” he said.
Lauer was wed to Dutch model Annette Roque in 1998 and separated during Roque’s pregnancy with their third child in 2006. The couple subsequently reconciled.
Couric’s and her late husband Jay Monahan were married in 1989. Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998. She is currently dating financier John Molner.