Ann Curry Isn't "Surprised" By Matt Lauer & Hollywood's "Overdue" Allegations

Ann Curry has finally spoken up about the recent firing of her former colleague Matt Lauer, and her comments confirm what we already suspected: Curry was aware of Lauer's indiscretions, although she won't reveal what happened when she was ousted from NBC in 2012.

"I can tell you that I’m not surprised by the allegations," Curry, ever the diplomat, said on CBS This Morning. She added that she'd be "surprised" if any women at NBC didn't find sexual harassment common.

Said Curry, "I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed. I think it would be surprising if someone said they didn’t see that. Verbal sexual harassment was pervasive."

In another interview with People, Curry insisted that Lauer's departure isn't cause for celebration for her.

"I’m not a vengeful person,” she explained. “I know what it’s like to be humiliated. I just don’t want to play a part in anyone else’s humiliation.” She's more outraged at the injustice than anything else. “I wish I could say that I was celebrating,” she added. “But actually I immediately checked myself. Because I knew women had suffered.” Curry, after all, has been subject to workplace sexism.

Curry was a co-host of The Today Show with Lauer from 2011 to 2012, when she gave an emotional goodbye speech on air. She wept openly, and, when Lauer went in to comfort her, Curry turned away. The image of Curry flinching away from her co-host should have been a canary in this sexual harassment coal mine: It's clear now that Curry did not want to leave, but Lauer's enormous power pushed her out.

"Everybody at NBC, everybody at the Today Show, everybody understood that Ann was kicked out of her position because Matt didn’t want her there," an NBC staffer told NY Mag for a piece about the controversy. "That’s why it was so personal between Ann and Matt."

Since Lauer's sexual harassment-fueled dismissal, the public has been eyeing Curry, waiting for her to comment. While she has given her thoughts on the #MeToo movement — "The vast majority of men I've worked with have been exemplary...It's the abnormal, the smaller group of men that is defining," she told press at a luncheon in January — she had yet to comment on Lauer until her interviews with CBS This Morning and People.

I'm not sure what we expected from Curry — triumph? Smugness? A tell-all interview about the ways in which men wielded their influence within the walls of NBC? What we got was so much more than we could have expected, though. Curry is measured, considerate, and — most importantly — ready for the upcoming battle.

Speaking of the women across all industries who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, Curry said on CBS This Morning, "We clearly are waking up to a reality and injustice that has been occurring for some time. And I think it will continue to occur until the glass ceiling is broken”

Watch the full interview with CBS This Morning, below.