Ann Curry had a whole lot to say during her CBS This Morning interview on Wednesday (January 17), admitting that she is not surprised by the sexual abuse allegations against her former TODAY co-anchor Matt Lauer.
In her first television interview since leaving NBC in 2015, Curry tried to walk the line in her thoughts about Lauer, but her opinions on the scandal were pretty clear. "I'm trying to do no harm in these conversations," she delicately told hosts Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell. "I can tell you that I am not surprised by the allegations. That means that ... see now I'm walking down that road. I'm trying not to hurt people. I know what it's like to be publicly humiliated, I never did anything wrong to be publicly humiliated, and I don't want to cause that pain to someone else."
"But I can say ... I would be surprised if many people, or women, did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed," she continued. "I think it would be surprising if someone said they didn't see that."
Beyond Lauer, who Curry had a notoriously turbulent working relationship with during her time on TODAY from 2011 to 2012, the TV host said that constant wave of the sexual allegations rocking Hollywood is long overdue. "We clearly are waking up to a reality and injustice that has been occurring for some time," she explained. "I think it will continue to occur until the glass ceiling is finally broken. This is about a power imbalance, where women are not valued as much as men. I'm not talking about people being attracted to other people. I'm talking about people in a workplace who are abusing their power and women and men are suffering. And I think the fact that people are speaking out is important, and the fact that we are moving against this imbalance of power is absolutely overdue."
Expect to see Curry return to TV as the host of the new PBS series, We'll Meet Again, a six-part series premiering January 23 at 8 ET. In the show, Curry will explore dramatic historic events through the eyes of survivors and document their road to reunite with someone who helped them make it through.
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