Ann Curry Breaks Her Silence 5 Years After Leaving the 'Today' Show: 'It Hurt Like Hell'

Five years after leaving the Today show, Ann Curry is revealing how she made it through dark times — and her life away from the morning grind. Sitting down exclusively with PEOPLE for this week’s issue (on stands Friday), the anchor opens up for the first time about her exit from the NBC morning show in 2012, an ordeal that came complete with gossip-column speculation that her firing had been due in part to a lack of “chemistry” with her co-anchor Matt Lauer. (Lauer, 60, was fired in November for alleged sexual misconduct.)