NBC News has fired the Today show host Matt Lauer – one of the best-paid TV presenters in the US – after receiving a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behaviour.

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Lauer’s co-anchors on Today, the long-running morning show, announced his firing at the start of Wednesday’s programme.

Savannah Guthrie read a statement from the NBC News chairman, Andrew Lack, before then giving her own shocked but steadfast reaction to the news.

Lack said in the statement that NBC had a received a complaint on Monday and a review concluded that it represented a “clear violation of our company’s standards”.

He added: “As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behaviour in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

Lauer is the latest in a series of high-profile TV presenters in the US to leave their companies over a sexual harassment scandal, including Bill O’Reilly at Fox News and Charlie Rose at CBS. Lauer is such a high-profile star in US television that he was the face of Thanksgiving Day broadcasts last week – anchoring coverage of the Macy’s parade of giant balloons and Broadway musical stars through Manhattan.

Hours after Lauer was terminated, Variety published the results of a two-month investigation that included accounts by three women accusing him of sexual harassment.

The women asked to be anonymous because they did not want their disclosures to have professional repercussions. Two of the women said Lauer had a button under his desk that allowed him to “lock his door from the inside without getting up”, according to Variety.

Variety reporters spoke with the women’s friends and families, who had told them previously about the harassment, which included claims of exposing himself to one woman and giving another a sex toy. The women and other former and current NBC staff members also described to Variety other uncomfortable incidents involving Lauer and his female colleagues. “For Lauer, work and sex were intertwined,” Variety said.

Variety said Lauer, who has not made any public comments about his dismissal, could not be reached for comment on the allegations.

Before Variety’s story was published, Guthrie said on Today about Lauer’s dismissal: “We just learned this moments ago, just this morning. As I’m sure you can imagine we are devastated and we are still processing all of this.

“I will tell you right now we do not know more than we just shared with you. But we will be covering the story as reporters, as journalists. I’m sure we will be learning more details in the hours and days to come and we promise we will share that with you.”

She continued: “For the moment all we can say is that we are heartbroken. I’m heartbroken for Matt, he is my dear, dear friend and my partner and he has been loved by many, many people here.

“And I’m heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell.

“We are grappling with a dilemma that so many people have faced these past few weeks. How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly?

“I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that this reckoning that so many organisations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue and must result in workplaces where all women, all people, feel safe and respected. As painful as it is, this moment in our culture and this change had to happen.”

Donald Trump was quick to comment on Lauer’s dismissal. “Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace’,” he tweeted. The president has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. He denies the allegations.