The media’s Karl Stefanovic obsession has come to a sad pass

We’ve had blow-by-blow accounts of his divorce, his whirlwind romance with a younger woman, his wedding ceremony that wasn’t a wedding ceremony, and now even his newly-adult son is under scrutiny. But is it a step too far in pursuit of a celebrity scoop?

Admittedly, some of the intimate detail of daytime TV star Karl Stefanovic’s tumultuous love life life has been supplied by the man himself, or his ex-wife, journalistCassandra Thorburn.

Thorburn certainly didn’t hold back in the painful aftermath of the couple’s shock split after 21 years of marriage, saying that she’d suffered “dark days” after the Today show host left her. “He really is dead to me and no, we won’t ever be friends again,” she told Woman’s Day magazine in October 2017.

Stefanovic himself had talked in depth about his divorce just a few months earlier to the Daily Telegraph, saying at the time that he hadn’t expected to meet someone new only five months after splitting with his wife and that he was very aware that he had “three beautiful children who need to be taken into consideration” as he conducted that relationship.

Coverage of the marriage break-up of a high-profile TV personality – particularly if he and adult family members give interviews on the subject – may be considered fair game by media outlets and their readers. After all, performers effectively benefit from having a high off-screen profile, usually through the ability to command higher wages for their on-screen duties.

But Stefanovic’s hint that sensitivity was required around his children doesn’t seem to have been heard by some elements of the media. There were multiple reports in March that the TV host was estranged from eldest son Jackson, and that the 18-year-old hadn’t attended Stefanovic’s ‘commitment ceremony’ with new partner Jasmine Yarbrough.

Now, the Daily Mail has focused on the teen’s personal, and private, Instagram account, reporting that Jackson had changed his username from @jackson_stefanovic to @jackson_thorburn. It’s “further evidence of the teenager’s fractious relationship with his father”, the newspaper said, running screengrabs of the locked Instagram account. (A check of Instagram indicates that the story appears to have prompted the teen to change his account name again – we won’t say to what.)

Even some of the Daily Mail‘s readers, who would be accustomed to the newspaper’s fierce pursuit of celebrity stories, weren’t impressed with the attention being focused on Stefanovic’s child. 

“Yes celebrities are probably fair game but Children should be off limits,” one reader, called Inkylegs, wrote in the comments on the story, while another called Paulsgirl wrote, “it is creepy you are stalking his social media accounts. He has done nothing to be in the spotlight – leave him alone”.

“This seems like a private matter, involving people who are very young and, presumably, upset. How can it do any good making it public? Have some decency and leave it alone,” Raphael31 said, and steve_sydney agreed: “This is a family not sport for your readers!!!”

Other commenters noted, though, that Jackson’s parents had spoken openly about their dramatic split, effectively putting it in the public domain. And the Daily Mail is hardly the only outlet to have taken an interest in the couple’s children, with the Daily Telegraph publishing an opinion piece in March that questioned whether Stefanovic had put his personal life before his children. 

“It’s impossible isn’t it, for a child to compete with a middle-aged man’s new obsession — a nubile younger woman with the fountain of youth on her side?” the piece by Annette Sharp said.

Given that he is now 18, Jackson is unlikely to be protected by the usual rules around the identification of children by the media in Australia. But what do you think?

Should the children of celebrities be protected from media coverage? Is focusing on Karl Stefanovic’s son a step too far? Or has his parents, by speaking to the media about their divorce, effectively sanctioned coverage of the family?