Matt Lauer Interviews Janay Rice Today, Ray Rice Tomorrow

On Monday, NBC’s Today show aired the first installment of Hamptonite Matt Lauer‘s two-part interview with former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his wife, Janay Rice. Sports newscasters have been clamoring to interview the Rices since Rice was suspended indefinitely from the NFL after a surveillance tape revealed in brutal detail Rice knocking his then-fiancee Janay Palmer unconscious in the elevator of an Atlantic City hotel.

Part one of Lauer’s interview featured Janay Rice and her mother Candy Palmer discussing the incident and the fallout from it. In spite of the horrendous violence Ray Rice perpetrated against her, Janay Rice followed through with their marriage and has defended her husband’s actions as a solitary eruption and a mistake that has not been repeated before or after it occurred.

“I found it interesting to see her with her mom, because you do get a sense of who she is,” Lauer said after presenting the pre-recorded interview, though he admitted that a lot of people are still going to question “who exactly Janay Rice is.” Lauer added that getting to see Rice’s mother did open a window into her, and he promised much more would be revealed in part two of the interview on Tuesday morning, including why she apologized in the early days of the scandal.

Watch part one of Lauer’s compelling interview in its entirety below. We’ll post part two, which includes Ray Rice, tomorrow.