- - Ann Curry Calls Matt Lauer Accuser Brooke Nevils 'Brave' Ahead of Memoir Release (Exclusive)

Julia MooreJanuary 30, 2026 at 7:08 AM

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Ann Curry (left); Brooke Nevils (right)

Arturo Holmes/Getty; Beowulf Sheehan

Brooke Nevils, who alleged that Matt Lauer raped her at the 2014 Winter Olympics, is releasing a memoir

In Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe, out Feb. 3, Nevils details her experiences with Lauer and what happened after he was fired from Today in 2017

In an exclusive statement to PEOPLE, former Today anchor Ann Curry shares her support for her former colleague, Nevils

Ann Curry is supporting former NBC employee Brooke Nevils, who is releasing a memoir about her experience with Today's former anchor, Matt Lauer.

Nevils worked at NBC for more than a decade before departing the network after she reported Lauer allegedly anally raped her, which led to his firing in 2017. Nevils said that alleged incident occurred at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Lauer denied raping Nevils in a lengthy letter to Variety in 2019.

On Feb. 3, Nevils, 41, will release her first memoir, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe.

Ahead of that release, Curry, 69, who co-anchored Today alongside Lauer from 2010-2011, shared a statement with PEOPLE. "I remember Brooke as good-hearted and credible, with great potential," she says.

"She is also brave," adds Curry of Nevils.

Matt Lauer and Ann Curry attend the "TODAY" Show 60th anniversary celebration at The Edison Ballroom on January 12, 2012

Michael Loccisano/Getty

"This isn’t the kind of book that anyone dreams of writing," Nevils said in a press release for her memoir. "But it is the book I needed when I felt alone, worthless, and afraid to ask these questions out loud.”

“I understand why messy stories like my own are so hard to believe, because I found them hard to believe myself when I was a journalist. With sexual harassment and assault, we see the messy gray areas as red flags when they’re more often the reality," she continued. "I spent years writing and reporting Unspeakable Things so others can be better informed than I was, make better choices than I did and have better options than I had. I’ve lived the gray area. As long as we’re afraid to talk honestly about it, we leave ourselves unprepared to navigate it. It’s time for that to change.”

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Curry, who first began appearing on Today in 1994, has been outspoken in her support of Nevils, along with other women who alleged Lauer had assaulted them. Five months after he was fired, Curry told the Washington Post that she personally spoke to members of NBC management in 2012 after a female staffer told her she was “sexually harassed physically” by Lauer.

“A woman approached me and asked me tearfully if I could help her. She was afraid of losing her job," Curry told the outlet in a story published in 2018. "I believed her.”

"I told management they had a problem and they needed to keep an eye on him and how he deals with women," Curry said. The employee had requested Curry not reveal her name to anyone for privacy reasons.

Matt Lauer appears on NBC News' "Today" show.

Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty

After Nevils shared her story in detail in Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, Curry issued a statement of support.

“Brooke Nevils is a credible young woman of good character. She came to NBC News an eager and guileless 20-something, brimming with talent," Curry wrote in a post on X, linking out to a story about Nevils' allegations. "I believe she is telling the truth. And that breaks my heart.”

When the rape allegations previously surfaced, NBC said in a statement: “Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling, horrific and reprehensible, as we said at the time. That’s why he was fired within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again for our colleague.”

In Lauer's 2019 letter to Variety, the former news anchor said he had an "extramarital affair" with Nevils but maintained that everything was "completely consensual," denying her allegations of rape.

On Jan. 28, Nevils shared an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir in The Cut, in which she revealed that she spent time in a psych ward after reporting Lauer and leaving NBC.

"I barely recognized the train wreck I’d become," she wrote of the time after she reported the complaint. "I was compulsive, paranoid, and drinking all the time. I felt I’d ruined everything, hurt and embarrassed everyone I loved. Soon I would find myself in a psych ward, believing myself so worthless and damaged that the world would be better off without me."

She is now happily married with "two beautiful children," and has "painstakingly rebuilt my life" since leaving NBC nine years ago. "Every moment with my family is a precious piece of the life that I once believed I no longer deserved to live."If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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