Variety says it “has talked to three women who identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment by [former NBC ‘Today’ show co-host Matt] Lauer, and their stories have been corroborated by friends or colleagues that they told at the time. They have asked for now to remain unnamed, fearing professional repercussions.”

The entertainment daily, in its exclusive story published on Wednesday afternoon, writes that Lauer “once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.

“On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.”

The Variety story, written by Ramin Setoodeh and Elizabeth Wagmeister, adds, “Despite being married, Lauer was fixated on women, especially their bodies and looks, according to more than 10 accounts from current and former employees. He was known for making lewd comments verbally or over text messages. He once made a suggestive reference to a colleague’s performance in bed and compared it to how she was able to complete her job, according to witnesses to the exchange. For Lauer, work and sex were intertwined.

“‘There were a lot of consensual relationships, but that’s still a problem because of the power he held,’ says a former producer who knew first-hand of these encounters. ‘He couldn’t sleep around town with celebrities or on the road with random people, because he’s Matt Lauer and he’s married. So he’d have to do it within his stable, where he exerted power, and he knew people wouldn’t ever complain.’”

We urge you to read the entire Variety story, which you can find if you click here.

As we previously reported, NBC announced on Wednesday morning that it had fired Lauer.

Matt Lauer co-hosting the ‘Today’ show recently (courtesy YouTube)