In her first television interview since leaving NBC, former “Today” show host Ann Curry is speaking out about the firing of her former co-host Matt Lauer and the pervasive “verbal sexual harassment” during her time at NBC. Lauer was fired over “inappropriate sexual behavior” last November.
“I can say that I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed. I think it would be surprising if someone said that they didn’t see that. So it was – verbal sexual harassment,” she said on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday.
“She just said that verbal sexual harassment was pervasive?” “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell asked.
“Yeah,” Curry replied.
“At NBC at the time when you were there?” O’Donnell said.
“I don’t want to cause more pain but you’re asking me a very direct question. I’m an honest person. I want to tell you that it was. Yes. Period,” Curry replied.
Curry, who’s making a much-anticipated return to TV with her new PBS show, “We’ll Meet Again,” was with NBC’s “Today” show for 15 years. She co-anchored alongside Lauer from 2011 to 2012 before a highly publicized break with the broadcast. Curry left NBC in 2015 and created her own production company.
Asked if Lauer had abused his power, Curry said, “I’m trying to do no harm in these conversations. I can tell you that I – I am not surprised by the allegations.”
The #MeToo movement and recent tidal wave of sexual misconduct allegations has toppled powerful men in media, politics, and entertainment, including the former co-host of “CBS This Morning,” Charlie Rose. Curry says righting the “power imbalance” in the workplace is “absolutely overdue.”
“We clearly are waking up to a reality, an injustice that has been occurring for some time and I think it will continue to occur until the glass ceiling is finally broken,” she said. “I’m not talking about people being attracted to other people. I’m talking about people in the workplace who are powerful, who are abusing that power and women and men are suffering.”
Curry also called for the focus on sexual harassment to move beyond individual accusations.
“The real question, in my view, is what are we going to do with all this anger? And it’s not just, obviously, about where I used to work. It’s now about where you’re now working but it’s about the problem that’s pervasive across industries in workplaces across America,” she said. “The questions is, ultimately, what are we going to do about it?”
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