Dr. Laura Berman says she gave the disgraced newsman sex toys for couples after he said he didn't want to be seen buying them in a store.
A story about Matt Lauer that was once told on TV is coming back to haunt him in the wake of his dismissal from NBC.
The awkward conversation happened last year when Lauer and Savannah Guthrie were guests on the final week of the now-canceled Meredith Vieira Show.
Vieira, who co-hosted the Today show alongside Lauer from 2006 to 2011, recalled how Lauer once had a “huge bag of sex toys” in his closet and his explanation for having them didn't appear to go over well.
He said they had a guest on the show who happened to be a sex therapist and left each of the hosts a shopping bag full of stuff, however, Vieira did not recall getting any such gift.
Now, that sex therapist is telling a very different story to Inside Edition.
Dr. Laura Berman was a regular guest on the Today show. In 2007, she says Lauer came to her and said he wanted advice on how to save his troubled marriage to former model Annette Roque.
“We were in the makeup room and he sort of asked the makeup artist to leave,” she claimed. “He asked me about sexual aids and devices. He confided in me about some of the struggles he was having in his married relationship.”
She says he didn't want to be spotted buying sex toys in a store.
“I brought him a shopping bag filled with toys from my line that were designed for couples, spicing things up,” she said.
But Matt Lauer's secret wasn't kept very long as Vieira found them.
“She was in the closet of his dressing room about to jump out and scare him or something — I don't know — and she found the bag and was totally heckling him about it and he was mortified,” the doctor recalled.
One of the allegations Lauer now faces involves the gift of a sex toy for a colleague that came with a lewd suggestion.
“I'm sort of crestfallen if any of those toys were used to harass any colleagues or any women,” Dr. Berman said.
Dr. Berman said she is able to speak out about Lauer because he is not one of her patients.
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