Seven years after he was fired from Today show, Matt Lauer settled into a new life.
“There was a time when he wasn’t really talking to anybody,” a friend of Lauer told PEOPLE. “He didn’t really talk to any of his old friends. Over the past year he has reconnected with friends and has been texting and talking on the phone.”
The source says Lauer, 66, is in a “really good place” with his children Jack, 23, Romy, 21, and Thijs, 17, and ex-wife Annette Roque, who filed for divorce from him in July 2019. .
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“He’s actually doing well and happy,” says a friend. “He doesn’t work and he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t want that. He was a journalist at heart and gave some impressive political interviews that spanned his career, but the current cycle of politics is not something even people who have been in it for a long time want to cover.”
The former host lives a “quiet life” in the Hamptons, but is “not dull and boring,” another source tells PEOPLE. “Matt has a circle of friends, including some from his big NBC star days.”
He also spends a lot of time with his children and girlfriend Shamin Abbas. “Matt is a good father and spent the necessary time with them during their teenage years,” a New York source tells PEOPLE. “He likes to be with them and supported their interests. He loves his children.”
Matt Lauer and Shamin Abbas attend the wedding of Don Lemon and Tim Malone in New York.
Older Ordonez / Splash
Lauer and Abbas’ last public outing was when they attended Don Lemon’s wedding in New York in April. “Matt is less worried about seeing him out than he was at the beginning of these years since he left NBC,” a social media source told PEOPLE.
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“Although he’s always looking at what he wants to do next, he’s happy,” adds the source. “He and Shamin had a nice life in the Hamptons. Everyone has their own interests and they do a lot together. They are a happy couple.”
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Matt Lauer and son Jack at the Orlando Magic vs. New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on January 2, 2017 in New York City.
James Devaney/GC Images
When not in the Hamptons, Lauer and Abbas “like” to spend time in New Zealand, where he had a home. Another source says that Matt has always loved Florida and would like to spend more time in the state.
NBC fired Lauer in November 2017 after a former network employee, later identified as Brooke Nevils, reported that he had sexually harassed her. Several other women came forward with similar allegations soon after.
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Shamin Abas and Matt Lauer on September 14, 2024 in Bridgehampton, NY.
Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty
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Nevils went public in Ronan Farrow’s 2019 book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predatorsclaiming that Lauer raped her in his hotel room at the 2014 Sochi Olympics when she was working with NBC reporter Meredith Vieira. Lauer insisted that all of his encounters were consensual.
Lauer has kept a low profile since his firing and was photographed for the first time since his ouster in October 2019 while having breakfast in the Hamptons.
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