Nine bosses were unimpressed by the furore, and Karl was let go from his Today show role in December.
In recent weeks, Karl has opened up about his sensational departure from Nine, revealing he was "struggling towards the end of last year".
Speaking at Nine's Gold Logie recovery brunch, the former breakfast show co-host candidly revealed he was having a tough time when he was dumped from the program while on his honeymoon with his shoe-designer second wife.
"It’s been about six months since I was on the telly, and I needed to have a rest. Towards the end of last year, I was cooked,” he began. “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. I think I was struggling towards the end of last year.”
While his sensational exit came as a shock to thousands of Australian viewers, the beloved presenter said he knew the change was imminent, inevitable and necessary.
“So it wasn’t a great surprise to me — in fact, it was a relief in many ways — that I was taken off the Today show. Because I just wasn’t at my best and you can’t be doing that show unless you’re at the top of your game,” he said. “You’ve got to be sharp, you’ve got to be witty, you’ve got to be funny. You’ve got to see the angles, and to be honest, at the end of last year I wasn’t seeing much.”