The former Today show staff member who claims she had an affair with Matt Lauer appeared on the Today show this morning (Monday).
Addie Zinone made the revelation in Variety last week, now she tells Megyn Kelly she wants to empower other women who may find themselves in a similar situation.
Addie, who allegedly began a month-long affair with Lauer in 2000, said Matt hit on her during a "professional" lunch and they had their first alleged sexual encounter later that day when he invited her to meet him in his dressing room. She said, “I realize that sounds very naive and silly of me because I walked over there to do that. But in that moment, I didn’t have anybody to share my fears and confusion with except for him, because what am I going to say to people?”
She said their sexual encounters have haunted her ever since. Addie said, “These are very hard things to talk about. My family is shattered by this. They are afraid for me. This all trickles down to a lot of people that are affected, so having these conversations is really important, but also there’s a lot of shame attached to what I did.”
She says though the relationship was consensual it was an abuse of power.
NBC fired Lauer last month after complaints of inappropriate sexual behavior.
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