A group of women with fresh claims of sexual harassment against Matt Lauer has spoken out for the first time to Ronan Farrow, The Post can reveal.
Farrow has also spoken to the woman whose initial complaint to NBC led to the disgraced former “Today” show anchor’s firing.
She has made the difficult decision to come forward and name herself in Farrow’s explosive new book, “Catch and Kill,” The Post is told.
We revealed in March that the woman was actually the ex-assistant to Lauer’s former “Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira.
While her relationship has been characterized in the past as an “affair” by NBC sources, her lawyer Ari Wilkenfeld told The Post: “At no point in time, did I say or do anything to encourage NBC to downplay my client’s allegations. We clearly indicated an absence of consent.” NBC — who called Lauer’s alleged behavior “reprehensible” and “appalling” — declined to comment on this.
Lauer and the aide — who subsequently rose to the role of a “Today” producer — embarked on a long-term affair starting at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
She went to NBC chiefs about the affair on Nov. 27, 2017. Lauer was sacked the next night after NBC News chairman Andy Lack went over to his Upper East Side apartment to fire him.
An NBC source with knowledge of the situation told us earlier this year: “This was not a fling; it was an affair. She went and complained and Matt was fired. He admitted it when Andy confronted him.”
The producer no longer works at NBC, it is believed.
At the time of Lauer’s exit, the woman’s attorney told “Today” that she was “terrified” that people would discover her identity.
We revealed earlier this year that the woman was actually considering writing her own book and was speaking to various publishers, as TV sources admitted this was “surprising” — considering how vocal her attorney was about maintaining her anonymity.
It’s not yet known how many women have spoken on the record for the book, but The Post is told that Lauer has hired a team of high-powered lawyers ahead of its publication on Oct. 15.
There are believed to be new allegations, as a source said: “A number of women with new claims spoke with Ronan.”
However, a source revealed that Lauer and his team are well aware of what is in the book after being given the opportunity to comment and fact-check by Farrow’s fact-checker Sean Lavery.
A source said: “These survivors have bravely made the decision on their own terms to come forward in the context of this book’s reporting.”
In a statement, Farrow’s publishers, Little, Brown and Company, declined to comment on the matter but told us that they are “extremely proud of the important reporting in ‘Catch and Kill,’ which has been meticulously fact-checked and vetted.”
In 2018, Lauer released a statement in which he said: “I have made no public comments on the many false stories from anonymous or biased sources that have been reported about me over these past several months . . . I remained silent in an attempt to protect my family from further embarrassment and to restore a small degree of the privacy they have lost. But defending my family now requires me to speak up.
“I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father and principal at NBC. However I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false.”
Farrow’s book also details his reporting on the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
It also features more on his claims that NBC refused to air his investigation into the disgraced movie producer’s alleged sex crimes.
Farrow has consistently claimed that NBC pushed his reporting to the sidelines after it was blocked by network bigwigs, prompting him to take his reporting to the New Yorker. His claims have been denied by NBC, which previously said it was an “outright lie” that they tried to quash Farrow’s reporting.
This, in conjunction with reporting by the New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, sparked the “Me Too” era.
Weinstein now faces trial after being charged with two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of first-degree criminal sexual act, one count of first-degree rape and one count of third-degree rape.
The upcoming book says it details “surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability and silence victims of abuse,” according to Little, Brown and Company. “And it’s the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth.”
Three women previously spoke to the Washington Post about alleged harassment by Lauer.
One woman claimed that the anchor exposed himself in his office and asked her to touch him, and a second claimed he had sex with her in the middle of the day in his office.
A third woman claimed that Lauer gave her a sex toy, as first reported by Variety at the time he was fired.
Three former NBC staffers, who supported Lauer, said at the time that Lauer’s relationships with women were consensual.
Lauer denied the allegations and allegedly told two people who worked with him that his relationships at work were nothing more than evidence of a troubled marriage.
But NBC News chairman Lack took a different view, and in memos to staff, described Lauer’s behavior as “reprehensible” and “appalling.”
Addie Zinone, a former production assistant on “Today,” was the only one to come forward publicly alleging she had a consensual but damaging one-month relationship with Lauer in 2000.
She said she was 24 and he was in his 40s. She first told her story to Variety and repeated it to the Washington Post in April 2018.
Zinone — who no longer works at NBC — asked: “Where are the other victims, and why haven’t they come forward?”
The Post reported that Lauer has finalized a multimillion-dollar divorce from Annette Roque, the mother of his three children.
He has been spending time in the Hamptons and, as friends have told The Post, he believes there is “no future” for him on TV.
Lawyers for Lauer declined to comment.