Karl Stefanovic who has copped a barrage of negative attention on his personal life has publicly hit out at Australia’s women’s magazines, in what was the former Today show presenter’s first of many regular appearances on radio show 2GB.
The 44-year-old called out the “loose” journalism he claims is used by some women’s magazines in Australia, adding: “For me, there’s been so many articles now, but I try not to read much.”
“The term journalism is so loose now,” he said, according to news.com.au. “I think some of the women’s magazines will put something in inverted commas and put that it in the headline — but there’s no recourse. Legally, lawyers say they can be wrong — but that’s not defamation.”
He added: “The problem is that some people do believe it, and with the fullness of time — you’ve got to hope that they don’t.”
Meanwhile, it comes just a few weeks after the former presenter opened up for the first time about his axing from the Today show, claiming in a post Logies interview that he was “struggling” towards the end of last year and wasn’t at his best.
The popular reporter who was dumped from the morning program earlier this year in a massive panel reshuffle, spoke openly about his feelings towards his departure from the show, admitting he’s feeling much “clearer” after taking a break from TV.
In the chat with several news reporters at a Logies brunch on Monday, Stefanovic said he desperately needed a rest from the spotlight before the shock sacking – claiming he was “cooked” – news.com.au reports.
“It had taken its toll, a lot of the attention – all the unwarranted attention I thought and you can’t control any of that, I’m not going to complain too much about that, but what it meant was that in a work capacity I don’t believe for a second I was at my best,” he said. “I think I was struggling towards the end of last year.”
Despite the public’s surprise over his departure from his hosting duties with Today, Stefanovic explained it wasn’t much of a shock for him and it had been something he’d been expecting.
The father-of-three said it was actually a “relief” to step back from the spotlight, admitting he wasn’t in the right headspace to be in such a top role with the program at that time. In fact, he claimed you needed to be at “the top of your game” to be in that position – which he wasn’t.