Katie Couric thinks some of the reports about her former colleague Matt Lauer aren’t entirely true, but also that the scope of the sexual harassment allegations against him may extend beyond what the public currently knows. 
 
 “It’s been a very painful time for a lot of people who worked with Matt, knew him, really care about him, and who never witnessed or experienced any of this behavior that is now obviously being talked about,” Couric, 61, told Wendy Williams Tuesday. “I don’t know the full extent of all these things that happened. I can only talk about my personal experience and I was always treated respectfully and appropriately.” 
 
 Couric added that a potential comeback for her former “Today” show co-anchor, who was fired in November 2017 for “inappropriate sexual behavior” at NBC, would be “challenging” at best. 
 
 “The full extent of what has happened, I don’t think has been truly revealed,” she said. “A lot of stuff gets misreported and blown out of proportion.” 
 
 The former Yahoo! anchor also took issue specifically with reports that Lauer had a button under his desk to lock his door, behind which a lot of inappropriate activity allegedly took place. 
 
 “A lot of NBC executives make it sound like some den of inequity,” Couric said. “A lot of NBC executives have those buttons that open and close doors. It was really just a privacy thing … I think it was just an executive perk that some people opted to have, but I don’t think it was a nefarious thing, and I think that’s been misconstrued.” 
 
 Couric also apologized for previously joking about Lauer’s alleged misconduct. 
 
 In 2012, Couric said on “Watch What Happens Live” that when she and Lauer, 60, worked together, “He pinches me on the ass a lot.” 
 
 “I was joking! It was a total joke,” she said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on Tuesday night. “In fact, when that started circulating, Andy, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I was on “Watch What Happens Live.”’ It was so antithetical to the nature of our relationship — I thought it would be funny because it was so weird,” she stammered. “It was totally a joke, but I was sorry I had made that joke because people misconstrued it.” 
 
 It wasn’t the only time Couric joked about Lauer’s bad behavior at work, having previously spoken at a top-secret roast in 2008 that featured plenty of material about Lauer’s sexual proclivities in the workplace. 
 
 Lauer himself has been largely silent on the allegations against him until last week, when he released a statement claiming that while he admitted to being a poor husband and behaving inappropriately at work, “any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false.” ||||| Katie Couric stopped by the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Clubhouse on May 1. During her appearance, the TV news anchor spoke about the allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding her former Today show colleague Matt Lauer. And she also clarified some of her own comments that resurfaced after news of the scandal broke. 
 
 "You've already spoken about it ad nauseam, but I have to ask," Andy began. "The day the Matt Lauer thing broke, you started trending on Twitter immediately because a clip surfaced of you on [WWHL] from 2012. I played Plead the Fifth with you and I said to you, what's Matt Lauer's most annoying habit? And you said he used to pinch you on the ass. I laughed thinking you were joking. Were you joking?" Watch the clip above to hear Couric's response and watch the clip below to see the 2012 moment Andy referenced. 
 
 Watch What Happens Live Matt Lauer's Most Annoying Habit Katie Couric dishes some dirt on Matt Lauer on 'Plead the Fifth.' 
 
 Earlier in the day, the Today show alum also spoke about Lauer during her appearance on The Wendy Williams Show. "It’s been a very painful time for a lot of people who worked with Matt, knew him, and care about him, who never witnessed this behavior that is now obviously being talked about,” Couric shared. “I don’t know the full extent of all these things that happened. I can only talk about my personal experience and I was always treated respectfully and appropriately.” ||||| Published on May 2, 2018 
 
 Reporter Katie Couric addresses the comment she made when she was on WWHL with Matt Lauer about him pinching her butt and tells Andy Cohen it was a joke that she now regrets making. 
 
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 Katie Couric Clears Up Her Matt Lauer Comment | WWHL
– That infamous privacy button that Matt Lauer had under his desk was an “executive perk” rather than a “nefarious thing” used to trap women in his office, Katie Couric told Wendy Williams on Williams' show Tuesday. “A lot of NBC executives have those buttons that open and close doors. It was really just a privacy thing,” Couric said, per Page Six. "A lot of stuff gets misreported and blown out of proportion." Lauer's former longtime colleague is struggling to reconcile her own experiences with the disgraced NBC host and what others have said about him. Couric said that Lauer always treated her "respectfully and appropriately," but added that it would likely be "challenging" for Lauer to experience a comeback. “I think it depends on ... how he decides to handle what has happened. And the full extent of what has happened, I don’t think has been truly revealed," she added. Later Tuesday, she went on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live and cleared up another misunderstanding related to Lauer. For the record, she was joking when she told the show in 2012 that Lauer "pinches me on the ass a lot." "I was joking! It was a total joke," she told host Andy Cohen.