After months of speculation and half-truths from ‘close’ sources, 42-year-old TODAY Show host Karl Stefanovic and his new partner, 33-year-old shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough, have made their first public appearances as a couple. And a lot of people have a lot to say about it.
Like anyone with an iPhone and a half decent WiFi connection, I feel I have a fairly solid grasp on the couple’s past week. On Monday, they put on an “amorous” front row display at Mercedes Benz Australian Fashion Week – their official debut as a couple and a subsequent feeding frenzy for paparazzi.
On Wednesday night they appeared “happy and relaxed” on a romantic solo date in Mosman. Come Thursday, Jasmine took herself to the hairdressers and “smitten” Karl dutifully followed – the most concrete confirmation to date that things must be serious.

To round out the week, the pair enjoyed a “lavish” champagne-filled lunch in Barangaroo. And how did they get to said lunch, you ask? They don’t catch Ubers like the rest of us, they travel exclusively via “romantic stroll”.
On the whole, it was a glamorous, carefree week. From what I can tell, marriage break-ups seem like a piece of cake!
On the flipside, we’ve seen Karl’s ex-wife of 21-years, Cassandra Thorburn, 44, perpetually snapped bare-faced in exercise gear either getting their children to school, at the supermarket or directing removalist trucks as she packs up the family home. In stark contrast to Karl’s glittering bounce-back, Cass is framed as the downtrodden ex-wife, the mother-of-three children anchored to the home, keeping up with the daily grind while her ex pivots effortlessly into post-married life. There are no pictures of carefree Cass or fabulous Cass. At best, we’ve seen her share a dart with a friend on the beach looking ”stressed out” – and it wasn’t flattering.
Top Comments
I don't know. If children are involved it often turns out that the man can move on more carefree than before and the woman suddenly has to take on more work and sort out additional childcare arrangements and prioritise the kids and their adjustment.. and then if she wants to move on, she must forever be hyper vigilant about the risk of meeting a predator who is actually targeting the kids. It's nice to dream that this is no longer the world we live in, but things havent changed all that much.
If she chooses to adopt the lion's share of the childcare, that is. Divorce arrangements imply an agreement between the couple as to how much of that work is taken on by each party. Let's not pretend it's inevitable that a woman MUST be the martyr and raise the kids with a minimum reciprocal input from Dad.
I'd love to say it wasn't, but it often works out that way, whether that's what the mum wants or not.
I'm sure this goes both ways but it's not always the case of both parents pushing for shared custody let alone pushing to take in more responsibility than the other parent. Sometimes sadly one parent passes up their responsibility and only takes on a part time or minimal role in the parenting responsibility. So sadly this doesn't make these other parents (often mums) a 'martyr' but merely the one parent picking up the slack and just getting on with delivering whatever their children need. And when this happens all those issues raised by Sophie are valid.