For almost 20 years, Matt Lauer was married to Annette Roque. Clearly, among Lauer’s many widely reported failings was his failure as a husband.
It’s long been suspected that Annette Roque is planning to divorce Matt Lauer, but her approach to this has seemed calm and careful. And quiet.
Now, reportedly, the divorce process has finally begun.
One of the biggest stories during these months of #MeToo was Matt Lauer being revealed and accused of being a serial harasser.
The shocking details of Matt Lauer giving sexual “gifts” and dropping his pants to demand sex acts from coworkers and underlings at NBC were enough.
But it didn’t stop at creepy stories about a button on his desk to remotely lock his office door, or at his alleged fondness for using NBC trips as a hunting ground, looking for young, pretty, ambitious staffers to invite — or lure — to his hotel room.
And then, of course, Matt Lauer was accused of rape.
According to the allegations, he locked a woman in his office, bent her over, and only stopped his sexual assault after she lost consciousness.
Some divorces are started by mere cheating, not an international media scandal that leaves a once-beloved TV personality in disgrace.
Us Weekly reports that, after nearly two months of … whatever Annette Roque has been up to … she’s finally divorcing Matt Lauer.
“They’ve started the divorce process.”
For a while, many feared that Annette Roque was refusing to divorce Matt Lauer. Since then, however, she’s kicked Matt Lauer out of their family home in the Hamptons.
(Finally!)
Clearly, something has changed.
Do you know what the weirdest part of this is, though?
It sounds like Matt Lauer is totally detached from reality. At least, from what we hope reality is.
Per their source:
“He thinks he can start fresh. In both his personal and professional life.”
We’re sure that he can date and even remarry. Sadly, he’s rich and famous, and some people don’t mind dating an accused rapist.
But … he really believes that he can salvage his career?
“He thinks he’ll be back on TV at some point.”
Maybe he’s right. After all, Johnny Depp is still somehow starring in movies even though we all know exactly what sort of man he is. And Woody Allen is still making movies.
As we said, Matt Lauer and Annette Roque were married for nearly 20 years.
Divorce can be hell, and there’s a decent chance that what’s currently a quiet divorce will grow contentious over time.
The couple has three children together: Jack, 16, Romy, 14, and Thijs, 11.
(Don’t make fun of their names; kids don’t choose their names)
Shortly after the Lauer story first broke, Annette Roque pretty much fled the country, and she brought Romy and Thijs with her.
Jack remained behind … we don’t know what to read into that other than that he’s 16.
This divorce will impact the children no matter what, but they’re at least old enough that they (particularly Jack and Romy) can probably have some sort of say when it comes to custody.
It’s difficult to tell how this divorce will go.
On the one hand, if we were for some reason advising Matt Lauer, we’d suggest giving his wife everything she asks for, quietly and politely. Surely he owes her that much, if not more.
On the other, the description that Us Weekly‘s source provides of Matt Lauer hardly meshes with the “broken, ashamed” description of him that we were so pleased to hear a while back. (Excuse my schadenfreude)
if he really thinks that his life can somehow go on as before, that people can still see him as a public figure and not as a sex monster who abused the trust of coworkers but also of the public, then he might fight to enforce the couple’s prenup.
We can hope that he makes the choice of a decent human being. But, given his alleged behavior in recent decades, we won’t hold our breath.
