Not backing down. Megyn Kelly is taking NBC to task after new sexual assault accusations against Matt Lauer and alleged cover-ups at the network were detailed in Ronan Farrow’s new book, Catch and Kill.
“Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, is a $200 billion company,” Kelly, 48, says exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly. “There is zero reason why with those resources, and if NBC truly has nothing to hide, it should not hire an outside investigator to look into the allegations that NBC executives have facilitated and covered up a culture of sexual harassment and abuse.”
Lauer and reps for NBC respectively dispute these claims. NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, for his part, went on the attack in a memo to NBC staff.
“These claims have been made not just by Ronan Farrow and NBC producer Rich McHugh, but also by former NBC journalists Ann Curry and Linda Vester, rape survivor Sil Lai Abrams and others,” Kelly tells Us. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant — which is why firms like CBS, Fox News, NPR and the NFL hired outside investigators to look into similar claims.”
Passages from Farrow’s book detailing allegations against Lauer were published earlier this month. In the tell-all, Brooke Nevils, who previously worked as former Today cohost Meredith Vieira‘s assistant, accused Lauer of raping her while they were on location in Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex,” Nevils told Farrow in the book.
The former Today show anchor, who was fired from NBC News in November 2017 amid several sexual misconduct allegations against him, claimed in a lengthy open letter that their encounter was “mutual and completely consensual.”
“It began when she came to my hotel room very late one night in Sochi, Russia,” Lauer wrote in letter obtained by Us. “We engaged in a variety of sexual acts. We performed oral sex on each other, we had vaginal sex, and we had anal sex.”
For more from Kelly, watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
If you or anyone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.
