Matt Lauer left New York City on Wednesday to visit his 16-year-old son to “explain what happened and why he was fired in person,” a source told Page Six.
“Matt’s first thought was that he needed to explain this to his son Jack in person, as it would be far more painful for him to read about it in the press and online. Matt drove out to Jack’s prep school this morning,” the insider said.
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Sources said Lauer is close to his eldest of three children and that, in light of his termination from NBC, will focus on spending more time with him, as well as daughter Romy, 14, and son Thijs, 11. The kids live year-round in the Hamptons with Lauer’s wife Annette Roque.
Other insiders alleged that Lauer was unfaithful to Roque, but they weren’t aware of any “unwanted” contact with women.
“He regularly cheated on his wife,” one insider source told PEOPLE. “Everyone knew. His wife lives in the Hamptons and he lives in the city, but we never heard he made unwanted moves.”
On Wednesday morning, Today co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb announced the 59-year-old’s termination at the top of the broadcast, citing a single incident of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
But in the hours following the surprising announcement, more allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced alleging that Lauer engaged in a variety of lewd behavior. Those claims range from buying sex toys as gifts to sexually assaulting a colleague so harshly that his assistant had to take her to a nurse.
Some of the more than 10 accounts published in a report by Variety claim they told NBC executives about Lauer’s crass behavior, but nothing came of their cries.
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