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Sonia Kruger faces another damaging industry blow following her controversial comments.

 

Cosmopolitan magazine, organisers of the Women of the Year awards, have distanced themselves from nominee Sonia Kruger following her comments about closing Australian borders to Muslims.

In July the Today Extra co-host said she thought “there is a correlation between the number of people in a country who are Muslim, and the number of terrorist attacks” and for Muslim immigration to “stop now for Australia”.

Sonia is among five women nominated for the magazine’s Fun Fearless Female Women of the Year Awards in the category of TV Presenter of the Year.

The magazine faced backlash when the finalist were announced, with some commenting they hoped that month’s issue had already gone to press when the comments were made.

In an interview with The Sun-Herald, Cosmopolitan editor Claire Askew made it clear this was the case.

sonia kruger nominated for cosmo award
Sonia Kruger later made an apology for her comments. (Image via Channel Nine.)
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"We went to press before she made those comments. She, 100 per cent, does not reflect the opinions of us or our readers but the comments were made afterwards," Ms Askew told The Sun-Herald.

Ms Askew then suggested the nomination was less to do with the thoughts of the 51-year-old and more to do with the choices available.

"It was a bit of challenge that category," she said, "But it reflects who the networks are putting forward on their big shows."

"It's reflective of who the channels are putting forward as their TV presenters within the Cosmo demographic."

She said there was a "big debate in the office" about whether to include Sonia or not.

"The fact is she's one of the big TV presenters in Australia. We didn't take her out because we thought she's one of the big TV presenters and now it's up to the readers to vote and whether she should be the winner or not," she said.

The award winners will be announced at a luncheon in November at Centennial Parklands Dining that Julia Gillard will attend.

Sonia is up against Sylvia Jeffreys, Samantha Armytage, Carrie Bickmore and Erin Molan for the award.

Samantha Armytage has had her share of social media backlash too. Listen to her chatting to Mia Freedman about it on No Filter.