Brooke Nevils, a former producer at NBC News, has returned to public view to explain how language, power and fear shaped her sexual assault allegations against former television anchor Matt Lauer. In interviews tied to her forthcoming memoir, Nevils said the words she used to describe what happened in 2014-during the Winter Olympics in Russia-were constrained by cultural assumptions and workplace hierarchies rather than legal definitions.
Nevils, who accused Lauer of raping her while they were covering the Games, initially described the incident as "sexual assault." Lauer has denied the allegation, saying any sexual encounter was consensual. In a recent interview with NPR, Nevils said the word "rape" was one she "hardly ever used," even though she now believes it applied to her experience.
"Because when you hear the word rape, you think of a guy in a ski mask in the dark alley and fighting for your life," Nevils said. She explained that the popular image of rape made it difficult to apply the term to an encounter involving a powerful colleague she knew and worked with closely.
Nevils said the absence of clear language compounded the difficulty of reporting what happened. "So we don't really have language to talk about this and we certainly didn't in 2017 when I was reporting it," she said, referring to the period when NBC executives were investigating misconduct allegations against Lauer.
A central dispute between Nevils and Lauer has been the meaning of consent. Lauer said their interaction was mutual. Nevils rejected that framing, arguing that agreement under unequal power conditions is not the same as freely given consent. "When your job is to work with the talent, when these are people who have to be kept happy, their opinion of you can make or break your career," she said.
She added that in television news, producers are often invited into hotel rooms by on-air talent as part of normal work routines. "Annoying them can mean you're never allowed on a set again - that changes the dynamic of every single interaction that you have," Nevils said, describing how professional dependence reshaped personal boundaries.
Nevils also said that people in senior positions are acutely aware of their influence. According to her account, attention from powerful figures can feel less like a choice and more like an obligation, particularly early in a career.
Since making her allegations public, Nevils has largely avoided the spotlight while working on her memoir, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe. The book recounts the alleged assault and examines how silence is reinforced by institutional power and social expectations.
Lauer, who was fired by NBC in 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, has maintained a low profile. According to People, he lives in Manhattan and has not returned to broadcast journalism. Two years after the allegations surfaced, his former wife Annette Roque filed for divorce, which was later finalized, and Lauer began dating businesswoman Shamin Abas.
