Cassandra Thorburn has taken aim at her ex-husband, Australian television presenter Karl Stefanovic, revealing he did not reach out to her after she publicly announced her breast cancer diagnosis in February.
The 55-year-old former television journalist, who was married to Stefanovic for 21 years before their split in 2016, told The Sydney Morning Herald this week that she had heard nothing from him since going public with the news. "No, I know who he is. It's others that don't," she said.
Thorburn also took another dig at her former husband, claiming he had always leaned toward "clickbait" journalism, ahead of the launch of his new right-wing podcast, The Karl Stefanovic Show.
Speaking out on 'cancer ghosting'
Elsewhere in the interview, Thorburn, who says she is now cancer-free but is continuing radiation and immunotherapy treatment, discussed the phenomenon of "cancer ghosting," in which friends and family suddenly withdraw from someone after a cancer diagnosis.
"Some people either don't know what to say or, just too much time passes in their head," she said.
She said, "If you are diagnosed with cancer, I can guarantee, you have zero expectation of anyone else. You don't start judging your friends or colleagues, or anyone you have known in your past, and thinking, 'why don't they reach out to me'?" "That's not what you're thinking. What you are thinking, though, is you don't expect people to leave," she added.
A 'taboo' topic raised in May
Thorburn first raised the subject in May, when she posted a video to her followers describing cancer ghosting as a "taboo topic" that is more common than people realise. "A recent side conversation got me thinking about a seemingly taboo cancer topic: Cancer ghosting," she said in the video. "What is it? And why can it be more painful than cancer treatment, according to a survivor article I read?"
She told followers that being abandoned during cancer treatment was not the patient's fault. "It's typically driven by those friends' own emotional limitations rather than their lack of care," she said. It is not suggested that Stefanovic engaged in any cancer ghosting of Thorburn.
Karl and Cassandra's marriage and family
Thorburn and Stefanovic were married from 1995 until their separation in 2016. They share three children, Jackson, 25, Ava, 19, and River, 18. Stefanovic has since remarried, wedding former model Jasmine Yarbrough in 2018, and the couple share a six-year-old daughter, Harper.
Stefanovic is best known in Australia as a longtime co-host of Today, Nine Network's long-running weekday breakfast television program. Thorburn began her own career as a media personality and television journalist before putting her professional ambitions on hold to raise the couple's three children.
In his 2011 acceptance speech at the Logies, the TV Week Logie Awards presented annually to recognise achievement in Australian television, Stefanovic thanked Thorburn for "giving up" her budding journalism career to focus on their family.
