Billy Bush Recollects Bumping Heads With Matt Lauer After “Immediately” Present Firing

All through his profession, leisure persona Billy Bush has been a staple on exhibits like “Entry Hollywood,” “Additional,” and “Immediately.” However his tenure on the latter got here to an finish in 2016, after an audio clip of his lewd dialog with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump broke the web.

Throughout his time on the “Actually! With Rob Lowe” podcast, Billy Bush recalled being let go from the longstanding morning speak present and defined how he bumped heads with former head honcho Matt Lauer on the best way out.

“He’s like, ‘I simply can’t get previous the irony that this occurred,’” Bush advised Lowe on the July 9, 2025, episode. “And he and I had a really stern dialog. I laid into him as a result of I mentioned to myself, ‘If I communicate to him once more I’m gonna lay into him.’ And I did.”

Based on Bush, he felt Lauer ought to’ve completed extra to face up for him when he was fired from “Immediately.”

“I mentioned, ‘I used to be at ‘Entry Hollywood’ for 15 years. I used to be the Large Cheese there such as you’re the Large Cheese on the ‘Immediately’ present,’” he mentioned. “‘Now I do know we’re dealing between a Cadillac and a jalopy, however nonetheless, I used to be the primary man there. And if a younger man who had joined us was an excellent man and you understand he’s an excellent man and he’s useful to the present and he’s good on the air and he’s bought every little thing that’s good for the group, you might have stood up for me.’”

Later, throughout his dialog with Lowe, Bush implied that another excuse he was bothered by Lauer was that he felt the Ohio College alum was jealous of him when he was employed by “Immediately.”

“Have them droop me, have them do no matter, however the blowing out of me and taking my total livelihood and profession and making me unemployable and simply wiping me out for one thing that’s 11 years outdated, it’s best to have stood up and also you didn’t,” Bush mentioned he advised Lauer, who was fired from “Immediately” in 2017. “And also you didn’t since you’re small. You didn’t need me round. I simply f-cking laid proper into the man and he mentioned, ‘No, no, no, I defended you in non-public.’ I’m like, ‘No, you didn’t, get the h-ll out of right here.’”

Lauer joined the “Immediately” information group in 1994 earlier than being promoted to co-anchor in 1997.

He remained with the corporate till 2017, when he was fired after a feminine colleague made an in depth criticism accusing him of sexually assaulting her in the course of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, per NBC Information.

Lauer was later accused of comparable conduct by further feminine colleagues, prompting NBC Information Chairman Andrew Lack to explain Lauer’s alleged actions as a “clear violation of our firm’s requirements.”

“Our highest precedence is to create a office surroundings the place everybody feels secure and guarded, and to make sure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with penalties, regardless of who the offender,” Lack mentioned.

Lauer is not the one celeb Bush has clashed with professionally.

Throughout his identical dialog with Lowe, the “Additional” host additionally revealed he as soon as offended singer Ricky Martin after asking the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” performer whether or not he was homosexual.

“He stiffens up within the chair and he goes, ‘What?’ And I’m going, ‘Oh boy,’” Bush mentioned, in line with a report from The Blast. “And he goes, ‘You motherf-cker,’ rips off his microphone.”

Bush defined that after his query, Martin walked away from the set, calling him a “piece of rubbish.”