Nevils alleges that she was “drunk and alone” when Lauer “insist[ed] on having anal sex” in a “spinning room” with her body “unsteady” and her mind “blurred [and] frantic.”
Lauer has always maintained their relationship was “mutual and completely consensual.”
Highlighting their “rounds of vodka shots” and “the overwhelming power differential” between herself and Lauer, Nevils writes, “I would never have used the word ‘rape’ to describe what happened [next]. Even now, I hear ‘rape’ and think of masked strangers in dark alleys. … It would take years — and a national reckoning with sexual harassment and assault — before I called what happened to me assault.”
She notes, “Back then, I had no idea what to call what happened other than weird and humiliating. But then there was the pain, which was undeniable. It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to remember.”
She recalls thinking, “If anyone else had done this to me, I would have gone to the police.”