Matt Lauer 'truly sorry'

"Today" show host Matt Lauer said "truly sorry' for what he called his "troubling flaws" in a statement read out on the popular NBC morning show yesterday, a day after the network fired him for inappropriate sexual behavior.

As his 20 years as a fixture of US morning television came to an abrupt end, the married 59-year-old found himself joining the fast-growing ranks of powerful men in US entertainment, politics and media to be felled in recent months by accusations of sexual misconduct.

Lauer said in his statement that some of the accusations against him were "untrue or mischaracterised" without explaining further but said that "there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed."

He was fired after a female colleague complained to NBC officials on Monday evening about a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior that began while they were on assignment at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics in Russia, according to NBC statements.