Matt Lauer Is Fuming Over Katie Couric's Memoir

A source close to Matt Lauer claims that he is furious over Katie Couric's recent tell-all memoir, Going There. The book was published last year, but of course, Lauer has been largely absent from the public eye since 2017 when he was accused of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment by multiple women. Now, insiders have told reporters from PEOPLE that Lauer is becoming even more reclusive, feeling betrayed by former colleagues like Couric.

The sources said that Lauer has "kind of withdrawn from several friendships in the last year," which is saying something since the 64-year-old has kept out of the public eye as much as possible since 2017. They said that Lauer "was really upset" by Couric's memoir, adding: "She shared their private text messages and she semi-slammed him. It made him lose trust. His level of trust has just diminished with a lot of people he considered friends and much of that was because of Katie's book, and because talking to people from his past is painful."

Couric's book claimed that she had only "heard the whispers" about Lauer's alleged behavior behind the scenes, but had never witnessed it firsthand. She remembered one female colleague telling her that she had received an explicit email from Lauer, and she recounted a conversation with Lauer where he lamented that he "can't even put his arms around" women when they're upset in the workplace.

Still, Lauer's supposed strong reaction to Couric's memoir is a bit surprising considering that she portrayed him more kindly than others in the last few years. Couric wrote that she couldn't "imagine such a scene taking place," referring to his alleged sexual harassment in the workplace. She also wrote that she still believes he is a "decent" man, in spite of what he has been accused of.

According to NBC News, Lauer was fired due to one specific complaint from an anonymous female employee who claimed that Lauer had sexually harassed her while they were covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. At the time, NBC News chairman Andrew Lack issued a statement saying: "While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident." However, reports in the years that followed indicated that NBC executives had knowingly helped Lauer cover up his scandals.

Since he was fired from The Today Show, Lauer has divorced his wife and avoided the public eye. He has reportedly spent much of that time in the Hamptons as well as in his private residence in New Zealand. He has not commented on these new reports about his anger at Couric.