‘Today’ Show Contributor Explains Why She Went Shopping For Sex Toys For Matt Lauer

Dr. Laura Berman, a sex therapist who once served as a contributor to the Today show, has confirmed that she gave Matt Lauer a bag of sex toys that was found in his office by his former colleague, Meredith Vieira. The incident took place a decade ago, and it has now come back to haunt Lauer, who was fired from his high-profile post on the NBC morning show amid detailed sexual misconduct allegations against him. Lauer was even accused of giving a colleague a sex toy as a present.

In an interview with Inside Edition, Berman, who has written multiple articles on the Today website and is listed as a special contributor, confirmed Matt Lauer’s story that he was given a bag of sex toys by a sex therapist more than a decade ago, but her version of how the transaction came about differs from his.

Matt Lauer’s sex toy story surfaced during a 2016 episode of Meredith Vieira’s daytime talk show in which she called out Lauer for the huge bag of sex toys she found in his office closet. At the time, Matt said a Today show sex therapist gave the adult toys to him, but he did not name Berman. Lauer also said everyone on the Today show received the goodie bags, not just him, but Vieira was adamant that she did never did a segment with a sex therapist and did not receive a similar gift.

Berman now says Matt Lauer talked to her privately about marital problems he was having with his wife, Annette Roque, and asked for her help with sex aids. Lauer told Berman that he wasn’t keen on going to an adult toy shop to purchase the items himself because he didn’t want to be recognized. It wasn’t hard for Dr. Laura to shop for items for Matt Lauer because she has her own line of sex toys, so she filled a shopping bag up for him and gifted the sex aids to him.

“We were in the makeup room and he sort of asked the makeup artist to leave,” Berman told Inside Edition of the 2006 incident.

“He asked me about sexual aids and devices. He confided in me about some of the struggles he was having in his married relationship. I brought him a shopping bag filled with toys from my line that were designed for couples and spicing things up.”

Now that Matt Lauer is the subject of multiple sexual harassment allegations, Dr. Laura Berman says she would be “crestfallen if any of those toys were used to harass any colleagues or any women.”

You can see Dr. Laura Berman talk about the Matt Lauer sex toy incident in the video below.

Matt Lauer was fired from his 20-year co-anchor spot on the Today show last week. Days later, Lauer issued an apology for his behavior, admitting there was “enough truth” in the allegations to cause him embarrassment. While Meredith Vieira hasn’t issued a statement on the sex toy update, last week, a viral video surfaced that showed Matt Lauer telling her he liked her sweater and that she should “keep bending over like that.”