Old Photos Of Matt Lauer & His Ex-Wife Annette Look Like A Bad Divorce Ad

Old photos of Matt Lauer and his ex-wife, Annette Roque, were a walking divorce advertisement long before she cut the cord on their marriage. Reports of Matt Lauer's attempted career comeback, years after being ousted from NBC following a litany of sexual assault complaints, have put him and his former life back under the microscope. One talking point that has repeatedly resurfaced over the years is his divorce from his ex-wife, Annette Roque, who filed for divorce from Lauer a few months after the 2017 scandal that cost him his long-standing job as a "Today" anchor. However, old photos of the couple suggest that they may have already been unhappy before Lauer's downfall.

Sonia Moskowitz & Kevin Mazur/Getty

As you can see in the photo (left), Lauer and Roque didn't exactly look super chummy back in 2013. The then-spouses were photographed at the 38th Annual Hampton Classic Horse Show. And though they were impeccably dressed in their respective digs, they looked incredibly unhappy while posing together. It's impossible to know exactly what triggered the awkward body language, apathetic expressions, or their inability to smile, but it's clear that, at least on this day, they weren't exactly jumping for joy. However, it's interesting to note that they looked just as unhappy back in 2013 as when they were photographed in August 2017 (right), roughly three months before Lauer's allegations went public, suggesting the scandal may not have been their only source of discontent over the years.

Despite the high-profile divorce between Matt Lauer and Annette Roque, which allowed her to walk away with millions, she has never gone the scorned wife route by publicly blasting Lauer about his troubling indiscretions. Her private thoughts on the matter, however, are a whole other thing — at least if you believe Us Weekly's sources. In November 2019, the publication quoted an insider who claimed that Roque wished she'd divorced Lauer much earlier than she did. "Annette wanted out of the marriage for a long time ... She stayed for Matt's career — and, more important, for their kids," claimed the insider. "But in the past five years, she's been through hell," they added.

In 2022, Radar Online reported that Roque had previously filed for divorce from Lauer in 2006 because her then-husband's "controlling and cruel behavior" had been impacting her well-being. Apparently, Lauer didn't deny Roque's claims, insisting that she'd provoked his behavior. Regardless, she eventually withdrew her divorce petition, even though that didn't fix the issues in their marriage. According to a source that spoke with the outlet, their inner circle had been well aware of their marital problems, with one source alleging, "His friends knew the marriage was in serious trouble. He seemed totally remorseless."