You couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for former Today star Sylvia Jeffreys when she was shown on TV chasing a man down the street for a story in her new role as a foot-in-door reporter on A Current Affair.
“I winced when I saw the promo,” admits a Nine insider, who says the talented newsreader is still reeling from her shock departure from Today. “I know she never, ever imagined she’d be reduced to such a junior role.”
Family dischord
Her husband, former Weekend Today co-host Peter Stefanovic is in even worse shape after being axed from his plum role, and forced to reassess his career while he’s working on a short-term project at Sky News.
“Peter is furious with Karl,” reveals one close mate. “The enormity of what’s happened has finally sunk in. He’s working on a documentary at Sky and wondering what his future holds, whereas Karl seems
to still be living large and earning a huge pay cheque for doing next to nothing.
“The strain on their once incredibly close relationship is starting to show, and it’s causing family tension. It’s such a huge fall from grace for both of them.”
Following Ubergate and Karl’s highly-publicised split and second marriage, the brothers’ relationship has beeen rocky. (Images: Media Mode/Instagram @sylviajeffreys)
The reason all their careers came crashing down has been well documented – beginning with the now infamous Ubergate scandal in which Pete was overheard criticising Georgie Gardner and a handful of Nine’s top executives.
But it was the constant attention on Karl’s complicated private life, including his toxic divorce from first wife Cassandra Thorburn, and very public and at times cringeworthy romance with new wife Jasmine Yarbrough, which destroyed his career.
Karl’s lavish million-dollar Mexican wedding to Jasmine and the public backlash it generated forced Nine to axe him from Today – and Pete and Sylvia became “collateral damage” and lost their coveted roles on Today.
“Pete’s really worried that he’s seen as damaged goods because of the destructive fallout from Ubergate and he hates that it’s also damaged Sylvia’s career,” our source says. “He’s fed up with being the fall guy for his big brother!”
WATCH: Karl Stefanovic says Channel 9 bosses “weren’t happy” about Ubergate scandal. Post continues…
The rift has affected the entire Stefanovic family.
“There have been less family get-togethers since the fallout and Pete rarely talks to his brother,” confirms our source.
“Sylvia has also been spending a lot of time back in [her hometown] Brisbane.
“Pete has always lived in Karl’s shadow, so when he got the boot for essentially being Karl’s brother, both he and Sylvia decided to distance themselves as much as possible and try and rebuild their lives and careers without being tarnished by Karl.”
The Stefanovic brothers in happier times. (Image: Instagram @peter_stefanovic)
Nine confirmed this week that Karl will make a comeback later this year fronting This Time Next Year and he’ll continue to earn $2 million a year for a few weeks work, while Peter is still trying to find a new permanent job.
“Pete’s a really decent person and hates injustice so I know it pisses him off to see his naughty big brother being rewarded for his bad behaviour while he’s left pretty much out in the cold to fend for himself.”
Testing times for Pete and Sylvia
When Sylvia’s new role on A Current Affair was announced which sources say she saw as a demotion, she appeared to be “missing in action” for weeks before she filed her first story for the tabloid TV show.
“She was utterly mortified when she was told she was going to ACA,” our source says. “She was like, how did it come to this? She went to that meeting fully expecting to be given a great new role or even her own show. She walked away crushed.”
Sylvia (pictured with husband Peter) is contracted to Nine until 2022. (Image: Nine Network)
It doesn’t help that on the rare occasions Sylvia, who is contracted to Nine until 2022, is at the Nine studios she runs the risk of running into the new Today hosts Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight.
“There are a lot of fractured friendships and it can be pretty awkward when they run into each other.”
Meanwhile Pete has a 10-week contract at Sky where he’s being paid $5000 a week to produce a documentary on Nicole Gobbo, the so-called Lawyer X who hit the headlines recently when it was revealed she worked as a police informant while representing underworld figures.
