Viraldice: Matt Lauer Breaks His Silence After Being Fired for Sexual Misconduct

ne day after his firing from NBC's Today show as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct, co-anchor Matt Lauer has broken his silence. Lauer's Today co-host Savannah Guthrie read his apology on air Thursday morning.

Matt Lauer has been a staple of American morning television for more than 20 years, and news of his behavior and his abrupt firing shocked and shook many people who've watched him in their living rooms day in and day out.

On the morning of Wednesday, November 29, Matt Lauer was fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior" in the workplace.

Lauer had been a co-host of the Today show since January of 1997, covered the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year, and was a regular correspondent for NBC during several Olympic Games.

But when an employee filed a complaint against Matt Lauer for "inappropriate sexual behavior," he was promptly dismissed from NBC.

While this news came as a shock to many, CNN reported that fellow NBC colleagues of Lauer’s weren’t completely surprised — several major news outlets had been investigating claims against Lauer for a while.

In NBC's statement about Matt Lauer's firing, Chairman Andy Lack wrote, "We were also presented with reason to believe that this [complaint] may not have been an isolated incident."

And mere hours after the initial announcement of his firing, this proved to be true. Variety reported accounts of three women who accused Lauer of sexual harassment. He once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. On another occasion, he summoned a different female employee to his office and dropped his pants. Included in the report was the beyond creepy detail that Lauer “had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up.”

It seemed as if Lauer's habit of sexually harassing female co-workers was another one of those "open secrets" that no one confronted for far too long.

Matt Lauer has been terminated from NBC News. On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. http://pic.twitter.com/1A3UAZpvPb

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 29, 2017

It took one brave woman filing a formal complaint about Lauer for the pattern of abuse to finally stop.

On Wednesday morning, an emotional Savannah Guthrie read Andy Lack’s statement on the firing of her “dear, dear friend” Matt Lauer.

And on Thursday morning, Guthrie was again forced to bear the brunt of responsibility in reporting on her former co-host's disgusting behavior.

On the Today show on Thursday morning, Guthrie read Matt Lauer’s full statement of apology in the wake of the allegations against him…