Matt Lauer’s ex-wife Nancy Alspaugh has jumped to the defense of the fired Today Show host after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, saying the actions “would have been so out of character for him.”
In a phone interview with Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, Alspaugh explained that she supports her ex-husband “100%,” despite the numerous sexual misconduct allegations that have been brought against him.
Regarding Lauer’s dismissal from the Today Show earlier this week, Alspaugh told ET: “I was shocked because he’s been such a stalwart at that network and in that job. He’s been the best person that’s ever held that job and I couldn’t imagine that anything that he would have done—that would have been so out of character for him—that would have caused that reaction.”
Matt Lauer and Nancy Alspaugh were married from 1981 to 1988, and have remained ‘amicable’ in the years since their divorce, according to ET.
“We were very friendly and I, of course, met his current wife, Annette, and we had our children at the same time,” she said. “I’m very close with his family, with his mother and his sister, and I know they’re all just trying to hang in amidst this firestorm.”
Alspaugh went on to call her the former Today Show host “incredibly nice, incredibly charming and incredibly willing to help anybody,” adding, “I never saw him as a power monger or somebody who would abuse his position in any way.”
“That’s why it’s so shocking, I think, for the people that really know him and really love him and they want to get the good stuff out. I want to get out the fact that he made a contribution to my nonprofit, that he helped me when my husband died,” she told ET. “The selfless, giving part of him, which people tend to forget whenever this kind of a situation comes up. He would give you the shirt off his back if you really needed it. He did that for everybody. From the lowest person on set to, you know, the highest powers.”
Read: NBC Confirms Matt Lauer Fired Over ‘Inappropriate Sexual Behavior’ at Sochi Olympics
On Wednesday, NBC confirmed that Matt Lauer had been fired from NBC News, adding another yet another public figure to a long list of business and media elites who have been ousted over reports of sexual harassment and other inappropriate conduct.
Savannah Guthrie read a statement from NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack as an opening for the Today Show on Wednesday, stating, “while it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”