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"I’m sorry if people are offended." Karl Stefanovic on the public reaction to his divorce.

 

Karl Stefanovic has opened up about his very public divorce from Cassandra Thorburn.

The television presenter, who returned to the Today show at the start of the year, separated from his wife of 21 years in 2016.

Now, a year on from his lavish wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough, the 45-year-old has spoken to Neil Mitchell on 3AW about dealing with his marriage breakdown in the public eye.

Watch Karl Stefanovic react to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal Family resignation on the Today show. Post continues below.

“Personally, it was a bit hard because I thought a lot of people do go through relationship difficulties and, unfortunately, for me that was in a very public way, but that’s what happens when you’re a public person,” Stefanovic said on the radio show yesterday.

“But I thought, ‘Well hang on, a lot of people go through this, and why is mine such a big deal?’ I still don’t know why it was,” he continued.

“I got divorced, I did find love again, and I’m sorry if people are offended by that, but it’s made me really happy.”

Just months after Stefanovic split from Thorburn, the Channel Nine presenter met Yarbrough, a decade his junior, while onboard a luxury cruise ship in Sydney.

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They later went public with their relationship in 2017, when they were pictured in Bora Bora on James Packer’s yacht.

At the time, Karl’s detractors thought he had moved on from his marriage too quickly, while ratings for the Today show struggled.

After that, there was the infamous Ubergate scandal, in which Karl and Peter Stefanovic were caught ‘complaining’ about his then co-host Georgie Gardner, as well as their Channel Nine bosses.

 

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It was a combination of these incidents that ultimately led to Stefanovic’s demise. Just days before he married Yarbrough, the television presenter was controversially removed from the Today show.

Speaking to Neil Mitchell, Stefanovic admitted that his time away from the show was difficult, adding that he went through some “genuinely black times”.

“Look, my life hasn’t been that difficult, and I think there are people out there who have far worse going on… so I’m not going to rabbit on about how difficult my life was,” he said.

“But there were certainly periods where I thought, ‘Oh my god, all I’ve ever done is really work hard and try and do the best I could for a show or a network.’ And then I thought, ‘Well, hang on a second, how have I got it so wrong?'”

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During his interview, Stefanovic also praised his new co-host, Allison Langdon.

“It’s a difficult job and she’s handled all the pressure incredibly well,” he said.

“I think that the most difficult thing – something that Lisa Wilkinson did incredibly well and still does, is just be able to converse on air like you’re having a cup of coffee with someone. She’s able to just talk freely about things, and that’s difficult to do on air.”

Karl Stefanovic is the comeback kid. Seriously. The Mamamia Out Loud team discuss. Post continues after podcast.

Stefanovic married shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough in a three-day wedding extravaganza in Mexico in December 2018.

Since their wedding, the couple have been subject to countless rumours about their future baby plans.

In December 2019, Stefanovic seemingly confirmed that Yarbrough was expecting their first child together, sharing a paparazzi photo of himself emerging from the ocean while holidaying in Byron Bay.

“After a great deal of speculation… the rumours are true,” Karl wrote, alongside a baby emoji.

Stefanovic has three children with ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn – Jackson, 20, Ava, 13 and River, 12.

Feature Image: Getty.

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