The world now knows things about Matt Lauer’s shameful, inexcusable conduct that no one ever wanted to know but everyone needs to know.
His wife, Annette Roque, knows about them, too. For a wife, it must be a nightmare, just a rung or two below “husband turned out to be a serial killer.”
And it looks like she’s finally moving for a divorce … and may be planning to clean him out in the process.
Matt Lauer’s disgraceful behavior only recently came to light, but his alleged misdeeds have been going on for years.
Accusations of sexual harassment have him doing things like giving wildly inappropriate sex toy gifts, along with notes on how he wants to use them on the recipient. Or inviting a coworker into his office, dropping his pants, and scolding her when she balked instead of performing a sex act on him.
And of course using NBC work trips as almost a hunting ground for young, ambitious women who could be lured — or tricked — into coming to his hotel room.
Worst of all, Matt Lauer has been accused of rape. Of allegedly locking a woman in his office through his creepy desk button and just bending her over without her consent, only stopping when she passed out.
When NBC announced that they’d fired him over an incident that they had reason to believe was not isolated, investigators who’d been quietly working on their Lauer stories published what they knew.
In the aftermath of these horrifying revelations, Annette Roque fled the country with her youngest children.
We absolutely cannot blame her. Can you?
They’ve been married for two decades — if you look at older photos of them, Matt Lauer almost looks like he has hair in them — and though she’d reportedly not trusted him at times, it’s probably fair to say that she can’t have known the extent of his bad behavior.
And now her husband is one of the most infamous men on a very long list of recently exposed powerful men who are accused of using their wealth and positions to turn coworkers into victims.
That sounds unbearable.
Strangely enough, it appeared for a while there that Annette Roque was refusing to divorce Matt Lauer.
Reportedly, they were trying to make things work amicably for the sake of their children.
Honestly? That sounds like it would work if he’d just been a cheater, or even a famous cheater.
But he’s accused of wronging so many women, not just his wife. Some marriage counseling and a few months sleeping in the guest room aren’t going to fix that.
And it looks like Annette has finally, finally realized that.
Star reports that Annette Roque was seen meeting with lawyers, and their source says that a split announcement should be “coming any day now.”
It had been previously reported that Annette was spending a great deal of time “hiding out” at home, avoiding news, calls, and the internet because she already knew more than anyone ever wanted to about her husband.
Star suggests that Annette may not rest until, despite her prenup with Matt Lauer, she wrests a substantial sum from Matt Lauer in the divorce.
If that’s true, well, good for you, Annette.
Annette filed for divorce from Matt Lauer, however briefly, back in 2006.
At the time, her attorneys claimed that her husband treated her in an inhumane manner, but it’s been pointed out that New York law at the time didn’t allow divorce over irreconcilable differences, so if you wanted a divorce, you had to accuse your spouse of being a toxic jerk in order to establish grounds.
(Honestly, it’s weird that any court could ever set standards for whether or not a couple can divorce)
And they reconciled a week later.
Still, if there were ever a time to do well in a divorce (and prenups are seldom as ironclad as people imagine), it’s when your husband has just been accused of being absolute scum.
