'I'm sorry': Karl Stefanovic apologises if his divorce 'offended' people

Karl Stefanovic has delivered a surprise public apology to those he may have ‘offended’ with his highly-publicised 2016 divorce from his wife of 21 years, Cassandra Thorburn.

The 45-year-old was appearing on 3AW’s ‘Mornings with Neil Mitchell’ radio program on Tuesday when the topic turned to his rocky relationship history.

“I thought, hang on, a lot of people go through [divorce], why is mine such a big deal?” he stated.

“I still don’t know why it is, but I got divorced, I did find love again, and I’m sorry if people are offended by that but it made me really happy,” he added matter-of-factly.

Karl announced his engagement to 35-year-old Jasmine Yarbrough, a model-turned-designer from Brisbane, just three months after finalising his split from Cassandra.

The pair married in a lavish ceremony in Mexico at the end of 2018 and are expecting their first child together.

Karl went on to credit his ‘wonderful’ kids - he shares three children with his first wife - for moving through ‘some difficult times’ in the past few years.

“I have a really great core of people around me now and that centre is the most important thing moving forward,” he said.

The recently reinstated Today host admitted that it was hard to have his ‘relationship difficulties’ play out in a very public way but conceded that it comes part and parcel with being a TV personality.

“That’s what happens when you’re a public person,” he said.

Karl, the comeback king

Six months ago, Karl opened up about the emotional and mental toll his publicised axing from the Channel Nine morning show took on him.

“For a while there, to be honest, I don’t think I was OK,” he revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald in July 2019, adding that the firing “wasn’t a great surprise.”

After six months off the airwaves, Karl was back at work, completing the next series of This Time Next Year and appearing on 60 Minutes.

In a shock move, Karl was reinstated as host at the start of 2020 alongside Allison Langdon, ousting existing duo Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight.

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