“In order to come forward with an allegation, you are essentially taking accountability for every mistake you’ve ever made in your life,” Brooke Nevils told CNN.

Matt Lauer’s accuser sits for first TV interview: ‘You’re putting a target on your back’ by speaking out

"In order to come forward with an allegation, you are essentially taking accountability for every mistake you've ever made in your life," Brooke Nevils told CNN.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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May 1, 2026 5:28 p.m. ET

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Matt Lauer in 2023. Credit:

Michael Ostuni/Patrick McMullan via Getty

- Brooke Nevils, who accused Matt Lauer of sexual assault in 2017, sat for a TV interview with CNN to discuss her book, *Unspeakable Things.*

- The former NBC employee has alleged that Lauer sexually assaulted her in 2014.

- Lauer, who was fired from NBC, has said his relationship with Nevils was consensual.

Brooke Nevils broke into tears during her first on-camera interview since the release of her memoir, *Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe*, in which she details the alleged sexual misconduct she suffered from former *Today *anchor Matt Lauer.

Nevils alleged in 2017 that the former *Today* host sexually assaulted her while they were in Sochi, Russia to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics. Asked by CNN why it took her three years to come forward, Nevils, who worked as a talent host and producer for the morning show, said, "My job was to smooth things over for the talent."

"So I thought, this I know how to do," she added. "I can smooth this over. And when I went back, the first thing that happened was he suggested I come meet him in his apartment."

Lauer contended that his relationship with Nevils was consensual and denied her accusations of sexual misconduct from her and other women who later came forward. He was fired by NBC in the wake of the allegations, but faced no criminal charges.

** has reached out to a rep for Lauer.

Nevils said that going public with her story was made even more difficult by the fact that she herself didn't always understand what was happening. There were also people who didn't believe her.

"In order to come forward with an allegation, you are essentially taking accountability for every mistake you've ever made in your life, and you're putting a target on your back," Nevils said. "And in my situation, I knew what would happen. Matt Lauer, at that point at NBC, could literally do no wrong."

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She had long been a fan of Lauer, saying that she had watched him on *Today *since she was in elementary school.

"He was seen as the *Today* show," she said. "He was old enough to be my father. My brain almost just could not compute the idea that he could do anything wrong."

For Nevils, it at first seemed like she had misunderstood.

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"In a situation where one person can do no wrong, and you are the person that is supposed to keep that person happy, the only conclusion you can reach is that it has to be your fault," Nevils said. "It must have been something I did, something I said. Why did I put myself in that position?"

She changed her mind in hindsight.

"When you're in a position of power over someone and you see someone who's young enough to be your daughter, who is drunk and alone in a foreign country, the normal response is to want to protect them, to want to help them," Nevils said. "It's not to try to take advantage of them. But because I was so steeped in this culture, it took me years to see that."

Nevils has since overcome struggles with mental health, married, and welcomed two children.

Watch her full interview above.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW News”