Matt Lauer's Ex-Wife Annette Roque Can't Stand Him & It's So Obvious

Being married to disgraced former "Today" show host Matt Lauer for nearly two decades left Annette Roque with one major regret. The former model initially tried to get out of their marriage in 2006, alleging "mental abuse, extreme mental and emotional distress, humiliation, torment, and anxiety," per court documents obtained by the National Enquirer (via Vanity Fair). Then, InTouch Weekly elaborated on Roque's filing, revealing that she had also accused her now ex-husband of being "extremely controlling" and demanding that she get his approval on minor decisions. 

Tragically, Roque also felt as if she was raising their three children as a single mother because the TV personality continued to put his own needs before their family's. As a result, living under the same roof as Lauer just wasn't conducive to her mental or physical health. But Roque wound up withdrawing the filing shortly afterward. The former model did not publicly comment on the workplace sexual harassment allegations that led to the beloved news anchor's firing from NBC News in November 2017, or the New York Times report, which detailed his alleged sexually inappropriate behavior.

However, in January 2018, a Page Six insider divulged that Roque had thrown her husband out of their Hamptons home when the accusations surfaced. By then, the pair were already believed to have been living in different houses for nearly 10 years. Ultimately, Roque went ahead with the divorce filing in July 2019 following a 2-year separation. Then, in October, an Us Weekly source claimed that Roque's sole regret from the whole ordeal was "that she didn't divorce Matt sooner." According to them, the only two reasons she hadn't thrown in the towel on their marriage earlier were to protect his career and their children.

In November 2017, a source informed People that Matt Lauer's habitual cheating on Annette Roque was an open secret to those who knew him well. Even more disturbing, the insider claimed that the former news anchor's affairs "were never with anyone whom [he] didn't have significant seniority over." Meanwhile, a New York Post source further posited that it was rare to spot him with the former model, whom they described as a "sad wife" (via Page Six), at all. According to the insider, whenever Roque caught wind of one of his affairs, Lauer would try to soften the blow by buying her a horse since she loved them. 

One source even admitted that when they noticed that the TV personality had splashed out $100,000 on a horse, they knew deep down that he had been unfaithful to his wife once again. However, when Roque filed for divorce in 2006, the news anchor who disappeared from "Today" realized that the horses weren't doing the trick anymore. And so, he offered her $5 million as part of a postnuptial agreement to convince her to withdraw her filing, per a Page Six insider. 

"Matt needed to stay in the marriage to keep his reputation as America's nicest dad," the confidant asserted in December 2017. "He is in fact a great, and very doting dad to his kids, but he is also a terrible husband." Ultimately, Roque got the last laugh though, as she walked away with an estimated $20 million in her divorce settlement. As such, that jaw-dropping number could have easily put Lauer on the list of messy divorces that nearly left celebrities penniless.