Matt Lauer was spotted on a rare outing with girlfriend Shamin Abas five months after Brooke Nevils released her memoir including allegations against him.
According to photos obtained by People on Wednesday, July 8, Lauer, 68, and Abas, 56, spent the 4th of July weekend in the Hamptons. The couple attended Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s annual holiday party.
Lauer rocked a white button up shirt, tan blazer and sunglasses for the occasion. Abas, for her part, donned an orange tropical sundress. She completed the look with sunglasses and a statement necklace.
The last time Lauer and Abas were seen in public was back in March during a night out in Sag Harbor, New York, per the outlet.
The pair’s recent outing comes five months after Nevils released her memoir, Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame and the Stories We Choose to Believe, which hit shelves in February. Nevils opened up about her experience with Lauer and her allegations against him in the book.
Nevils, who worked as a producer on Today, filed a formal complaint against Lauer in 2017, which was at the height of the MeToo movement, accusing him of anally raping her in his hotel room in Russia while they covered the Olympics for NBC. Lauer was ultimately fired from Today. (Nevils ended up taking a leave of absence from the morning show before exiting the role.)
The disgraced news anchor denied the allegations in a 2019 letter. Lauer claimed that his experiences with Nevils were “completely mutual and consensual.” Nevils has since argued that she was too drunk to give consent to Lauer.
“In that room, I wasn’t myself anymore so much as a body suddenly at someone else’s disposal,” she wrote, adding that no “decent man pressures a terrified, decades-younger woman to do” what Lauer allegedly did.
Nevils added that she remembered going back to her own room and noticed in the mirror that she was visibly drunk describing her appearance as “not just wasted but wrecked.” She claimed there was “no way” Lauer wouldn’t have been able to notice that.
Lauer has not publicly spoken out about Nevils’ memoir revelations.
After Nevils’ spoke out against Lauer in 2017, multiple other women came forward with their allegations against him. Lauer and then-wife Annette Roque separated shortly after that. Roque, who shares three kids with Lauer, filed for divorce in 2019, after more than two decades of marriage.
Amid his divorce, Lauer moved on with Abas. The pair were friends for years before their connection turned romantic.
If you or anyone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing, recovering and more.
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