Megyn Kelly said at a media conference on Wednesday, November 29, that she wasn’t aware her colleague Matt Lauer was going to be fired by NBC News the night before.
“I had heard rumors about Matt, but that’s all,” the Megyn Kelly Today host, 47, said while speaking at Business Insider’s Ignition 2017 conference in New York City, via Variety. “I hear a lot of rumors about myself that aren’t true.”
Today show cohosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb broke the news of Lauer’s termination at the top of Wednesday morning’s show. A visibly emotional Guthrie, 45, read aloud an email that NBC News chairman Andrew Lack sent to staffers. He wrote that the network “received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” later adding that he believes “this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Prior to Wednesday’s conference, Kelly opened up about the news on her hour of the Today show. “This one does hit close to home,” she told viewers. “I, too, have known Matt for a long time. He has been a friend, and kind and supportive to me and my transition to NBC News. I see the anguish on my colleagues’ faces. But when this happens, what we don’t see is the pain on the faces of those who’ve found the courage to come forward. And that is a terrifying thing to do.”
Lauer, 59, has yet to publicly respond to the allegations.
