Matthew Todd Lauer was born on December 30, 1957, in New York City. His mother, Marilyn Lauer, owned a boutique, while his father, Jay Robert Lauer, worked for a bicycle manufacturer. He attended Ohio University before dropping out in 1979 to pursue a broadcast career at WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia. His first employment at the station was as a producer for the noon newscast, and by 1980, he had worked his way up to becoming an on-air reporter for the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Lauer eventually returned to Ohio University to finish his undergraduate degree, graduating in 1997 at the age of 39.
Personal Life
Matt Lauer was married to television producer Nancy Alspaugh from 1982 to 1988, but the marriage ended in divorce. He was married to Dutch model Annette “Jade” Roque in 1998 after dating another television newscaster, Kristen Gesswein, until 1996. Roque has been in Revlon advertisements titled “The Most Unforgettable Women in the World Wear Revlon.” The couple split up temporarily during Roque’s third pregnancy in 2006, but they reconnected after Roque filed for divorce. Following Lauer’s sexual harassment charges in 2017, the couple separated and filed for divorce. Lauer agreed to pay Roque a $20 million divorce settlement in July 2019, and they formalized their divorce on September 7, 2019.
Career
He worked on a variety of programs after starting at WOWK-TV. He co-hosted the syndicated television series “PM Magazine” in Richmond (1980-1981), Providence (1981-1984), and New York City (1984-1986). Following the discontinuation of the New York version of “PM Magazine” in 1986, Lauer worked on the WNYW station’s “Made in New York” show, which lasted barely fifteen weeks.
Lauer made his first national television appearance as co-host with Robin Leach of ABC’s daytime series “Fame, Fortune, and Romance,” a spin-off of the syndicated show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” The spin-off series was short-lived, and Lauer returned to local television in 1987 and 1989, hosting shows in Philadelphia and Boston. During this period, he also worked as an anchor for HBO’s entertainment news shows. He returned to New York City in September 1989 to anchor the WWOR-TV show “9 Broadcast Plaza,” but he was only there for a short time. Lauer was hired by the Kushner-Locke Company in 1990 to anchor a pilot called “Day in Court.” David Sams, who helped “The Simpsons” gain national syndication for “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, executive-produced it.
Lauer joined NBC in 1992 as co-anchor of the weekday morning news show “Today in New York,” which broadcast on the network’s main station in New York, WNBC. He briefly co-hosted the afternoon news show “Live at Five” with Sue Simmons in 1993, and he finally took on this afternoon post permanently in 1994, giving up his morning duties. He worked on “Live on Five” until 1996. His on-screen appearance and rising popularity helped him advance inside the network and NBC News. Between 1992 to 1993, he filled in as the “Today Show” newsreader when Margaret Larson was unavailable. This interim post essentially functioned as his audition for the show, and he was hired as a full-time news anchor on “The Today Show” in January 1994. In this new role as a news anchor, he would occasionally fill in for Bryant Gumbel, and he was finally selected as the official co-host of “The Today Show” after Gumbel stepped down in January 1997. During this period, Lauer also filled in for Scott Simon, Mike Schneider, Jack Ford, David Bloom, and Lester Holt on “Weekend Today,” Ann Curry on “NBC News at Sunrise,” and Tom Brokaw on “NBC Nightly News.” In addition, he hosts shows on the Discovery Channel and MSNBC.
Lauer has interviewed and interacted with many notable international figures while working for “The Today Show,” including England’s Prince William and Prince Harry, Russian President Vladimir Putin, former American President George W. Bush, and then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016. From 1998 to 2009, Lauer also presented a five-day yearly feature called “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” in which he travelled to various areas throughout the world and reported on the significance of those locations. Bhutan, Easter Island, the Panama Canal, Iran, Hong Kong, Croatia, and the Great Wall of China are among the places he visited on the episode.
Net Worth
Matt Lauer is a wealthy American former news anchor and television broadcaster with an estimated net worth of $80 million. He is best known for hosting NBC’s “The Today Show” from 1997 to 2017. In 2017, he was compelled to resign due to charges of sexual harassment. Before the controversy and subsequent divorce, Matt was the highest-paid individual on television, with a net worth easily exceeding $120-$150 million.
Real Estate
Matt spent several years dividing his time between an apartment in New York City and a home in the Hamptons. His most recent New York City condo cost $5.9 million when he purchased it in 2004. In 2018, he sold this home for $7.4 million.
Out and about in the Hamptons Matt has several properties. He sold a small bayfront property in Southampton for $3.6 million in 2016. That same year, he paid a whopping $36.5 million for a two-home complex in Sag Harbor. Richard Gere was the seller. Gere, who purchased the home in 2005 for $6.9 million and subsequently undertook extensive renovations, reportedly sought $70 million at one time. Lauer marketed the property for $44 million in June 2019. He is still the owner as of this writing.
Matt still owns a 25-acre property in Sag Harbor with an 8,000-square-foot mansion that was formerly advertised for $18 million but has subsequently been dropped to $12.75 million as of this writing. He also owns a 16,000-acre property in New Zealand, which he wife Annette Roque acquired for $9 million in 2017. Following the public disclosure of his sexual assault claims, the Overseas Investment Office of New Zealand examined whether Lauer violated a “good character standard for foreign property buyers.” No allegations were made public at the time he acquired the land. Before they may purchase huge swaths of land, foreign purchasers must pass a broad and ambiguous “good character” test. Officials from the government finally judged that they did not have enough evidence to flunk the test today.
Sexual Assault Allegations
NBC News terminated Lauer’s job in November 2017 after an anonymous female NBC employee complained that he had sexually assaulted her during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She further said that the harassment continued when they returned to New York from Russia. More allegations surfaced in the days that followed, and NBC finally admitted to three further occurrences from 2000 to 2007.
