Matt Lauer ‘Caught Totally Off Guard’ by Accuser’s Tell-All: ‘Timing is Terrible’ Amid Comeback Plans

Matt Lauer has been itching to return to TV since getting axed from Today in 2017 — but a bombshell memoir from the alleged sex creep’s rape accuser has dashed his dreams, sources say.

“This is a real hammer blow for Matt,” an insider confides. “The timing is terrible as he started the year bragging how he’s finally making headway with his comeback and that all those years of keeping his head down have finally paid off.”

“He was caught totally off guard by this tell-all, and it’s got him in that familiar position of frantically doing damage control and insisting the encounter was totally consensual.”

Lauer, 68, was fired from his high-profile post at the NBC morning show after former network talent assistant Brooke Nevils alleged that he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and other women accused him of sexual misconduct, according to NPR.

Lauer has denied any wrongdoing. Yet Nevils’ book — Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe — claims over a decade ago she found herself “drunk and alone” with the Daytime Emmy winner, who was “insisting on anal sex,” per People.

Nevils alleges she awoke in “undeniable pain” and found her “underwear and the sheet beneath me caked with blood.” She adds, “It hurt to walk. It hurt to sit. It hurt to remember.”

However, she says at the time, “I had no idea what to call what happened other than weird and humiliating.”

Nevils also claims the since-divorced journalist — who’s been dating businesswoman Shamin Abas since 2019 — grabbed an armful of towels before another encounter, purporting that he said, “Just in case … because of what happened last time.”

She writes, “ ‘What happened last time’ could only have been the blood. He saw it in Sochi. He has known about it all along.”

The insider says of Nevils’ memoir, “This touches a real raw nerve because it pertains to a period of his life that Matt’s utterly ashamed of, yet he’s having it dragged up yet again and being painted as a predator and a creep.”

“There’s just no way anyone’s likely to take a gamble on him as things stand. This just proves his reputation is shot to pieces. He’s devastated and very bitter. He swears it’s all a giant conspiracy and that certain folks are determined to keep wrecking his life for their own sadistic purposes.”