In the wake of recent revelations that Karl Stefanovic has split from his wife of 21 years, Cassandra Thorburn, Nine’s Today host was missing in action from presenting duties on the show this morning.
The show today was presented by his regular co-host Lisa Wilkinson who was joined by news reader Sylvia Jefferies. A brief mention was made of his absence at the start of the show with the excuse being he was tidying up “a couple of loose ends” on a 60 Minutes story.
Over the weekend, news broke that Karl had moved out of the family home into the $20 million Bondi home owned by his friend, James Packer. The presenter has yet to make any official statement either confirming or denying these reports. He presented yesterday’s show as per usual but has avoided media trying to interview him about the rumours.
Karl, 42, and Cassandra, 44, met in the 1990s in Queensland’s Rockhampton where Karl was working with WIN television and Cassandra at the ABC. In previous reports, Karl has said they met at a Melrose Place party.
In interviews last year he talked about how Cassandra gave up a high-flying job at the ABC to look after the couple’s three children, Jackson, 16, Ava, 11, and River, 10.
‘She gave up a promising career at the ABC and I’m forever thankful and tremendously appreciative of that,’ he revealed in an interview last year. “Cass wanted to be at home, and wants to be there now, and we’re very lucky to be in a financial position where we can do that.”
Media reports from the weekend say that friends believe the couple are trying to “work their marriage out”.
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