Karl Stefanovic is no stranger to headlines after his firing and rehiring at Nine’s Today show following a number of controversies, including his very bitter marriage breakdown and the infamous Ubergate scandal.
WATCH: Karl mimics Hannibal to address Ubergate and marriage breakdown
But rather than shy away from his issues, he has gone rogue in a new ad for the morning breakfast show by addressing them as he mimics Hannibal Lecter.
“You better get used to those early mornings again,” Allison “Ally” Langdon, who plays Clarice Starling, tells him.
“I’ve missed the smell of morning coffee,” he replies, as he stands in a cell, just like Anthony Hopkins in the famous films.
“Apparently I’ve been a very naughty boy,” he adds.
“This time Karl things are going to be different,” Ally says.
“I want my old dressing room back,” Karl says.
“They gave it to me,” Ally smirks.
“No!” he says.
“Everyone is watching Karl, are you going to behave?” Ally asks.
“Well, you are just going to have to trust me,” he tells his new co-host before she wheels him away.
It comes just weeks after Karl lashed out over his divorce from ex wife Cassandra Thorburn. Cass and Karl called it quits on their 21-year long marriage in 2018. They share three children together, Jackson, 19, Ava, 13, and River, 12.
The Today show host says he is baffled as to why their separation was “such a big deal”.
The 45-year-old then went on to meet new wife Jasmine Yarbrough just five months later, with the pair tying the knot in Mexico in a lavish ceremony.
“Personally, it was a bit hard because I thought a lot of people do go through relationship difficulties and, unfortunately, for me that was in a very public way, but that’s what happens when you’re a public person,” Stefanovic revealed to Neil Mitchell on 3AW yesterday.
“But I thought, ‘Well hang on, a lot of people go through this, and why is mine such a big deal?’ I still don’t know why it was.
“I got divorced, I did find love again, and I’m sorry if people are offended by that, but it’s made me really happy.”
Stefanovic went on to reveal that 2019 was a tough year following his departure from the breakfast TV show, which he is now hosting again alongside Allison Langdon.
“Look, my life hasn’t been that difficult, and I think there are people out there who have far worse going on … so I’m not going to rabbit on about how difficult my life was,” he said. “But there was certainly periods where I thought, ‘Oh my god, all I’ve ever done is really work hard and try and do the best I could for a show or network’. And then I thought, ‘Well, hang on a second, how have I got it so wrong?’”
Just recently Thorburn defended Karl’s shoe designer wife in an exclusive interview with Mosman Daily.
“People refer to her as ‘the new wife’. Or, ‘the second wife’. It’s like, are you joking? That’s his wife. Show some respect,” she told the newspaper.
“Because, when they say she’s the ‘new wife’, or the ‘second wife’, she then has to think, well, [Cass] was the first wife. Well, that’s unkind.”
“And, what do you mean, first wife is more important than second? No, she’s not.”
Meanwhile, the Ubergate scandal happened when Channel Nine’s former golden boys Karl and his brother Peter Stefanovic found themselves in hot water when an Uber driver revealed details of a 45-minute phone call which took place while Peter and wife, Nine host Sylvia Jeffreys, were travelling in his car.
The conversation saw Karl vent his frustration about his Today Show co-host Georgie Gardiner, as well as colleagues Richard Wilkins, Mark Burrows and Nine network executives, New Idea exclusively revealed at the time.
Peter, who co-hosted Today Weekend and worked as reporter on 60 Minutes at the time of the controversy, reportedly declared he “hated his job” among other complaints.
