Popular TV host Karl Stefanovic has opened up in a candid interview and admitted that it was his fault that his Today co-stars Sylvia Jeffreys, Richard Wilkins, Tim Gilbert and Peter Stefanovic were all let go from the breakfast news show.
Stefanovic explained that there was a lot of public interest in his new relationship with Jasmine Yarbrough at the time because he had recently divorced his first wife Cassandra Thorburn.
Because of the light shone on his current relationship, Stefanovic says their nuptials in Mexico turned into a media frenzy.
“There is a shot at my wedding of my brother [Peter], Tim Gilbert [Today‘s then-sports reporter], Richard Wilkins [the entertainment reporter at the time], and it was like the red wedding in Game of Thrones,” he told Gus Worland’s Not an Overnight Success podcast. The TV host is referencing the “red wedding” from GOT that saw some of the show’s main characters killed at a wedding feast.
Stefanovic continued, “Everyone got totalled. Everyone got taken off the [Today] show. That was my fault. Why did it happen? I’m just in love and getting married. It was hard.”
“I thought my shit didn’t stink… I was king of the world, but literally the next day [I was fired].”
Stefanovic was fired from the Today show in December 2018, while on his honeymoon. His brother, Peter Stefanovic, departed the network show shortly after. Tim Gilbert and Sylvia Jeffreys were also pulled off the show at around the same time. Wilkins was moved to mostly weekend reporting. Stefanovic rejoined Today as a co-host in 2020.
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Ratings for the Today show started to plummet in the two years prior to Stefanovic’s wedding, with much speculation that it was a result of the TV host tarnishing his image by moving on quickly – and very publicly – from his ex wife. He split from his wife in September 2016 and publicly launched his relationship with former model Yarbrough a few months later. Yarbrough and Stefanovic are still together and share a daughter, Harper.
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