Matt Lauer’s Ex-Wife Annette Roque Breaks Silence on Rape Allegation

Matt Lauer‘s ex-wife Annette Roque has broken her silence on the rape allegations against her husband by former NBC News employee Brooke Nevils, who claims Lauer raped her in his hotel room during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

“In response to your inquiry, our client has asked us to tell you that now that the parties are officially divorced, her priority and only concern is for their wonderful children,” Roque’s lawyer John M. Teitler said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Our client will make no further statements.”

The statement is Roque’s first since Lauer was accused of sexual assault and subsequently fired from Today in 2017. Lauer and Roque married in 1998 and share sons Jack and Thijs and daughter Romy. The couple finalized their divorce in September.

Nevils’ allegations that she was raped by Lauer during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 led to Lauer’s firing from Today two years ago and were further detailed in Ronan Farrow’s new book, Catch and Kill. Nevils had her identity kept anonymous at the time of her initial report last year, but revealed her name and full allegations in Farrow’s book, an excerpt of which was published by Variety.

In the book, Nevils claims that Lauer anally raped her in his hotel room in Sochi, with the alleged incident taking place after Nevils was having a drink with former Today co-host Meredith Viera. The two women were joined by Lauer, who invited Nevils, who had had six shots of vodka, back to his room. Farrow wrote that Nevils “had no reason to suspect Lauer would be anything but friendly based on prior experience” but that Lauer pushed Nevils against the door and kissed her once she was in the room.

He allegedly asked her if she liked anal sex, and Nevils “declined several times” and “was in the midst of telling him she wasn’t interested again when he ‘just did it.’”

“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” Nevils told Farrow. “It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”

Nevils said that she and Lauer had further sexual encounters after returning to New York City, recalling, “It was completely transactional. It was not a relationship.”

Lauer has denied the allegations and claimed that his encounters with Nevils were consensual in a letter obtained by Variety.

The former host said Nevils’ claim is “categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense” an called his encounters with her an “extramarital affair.”

“We performed oral sex on each other, we had vaginal sex, and we had anal sex,” he wrote. “Each act was mutual and completely consensual.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Kevin Mazur