Karl Stefanovic’s 26-year empire at the Nine Network has collapsed in spectacular fashion, leaving his former on-air partner Sarah Abo to pick up the pieces of a shattered friendship. The breakfast TV kingpin was axed overnight following a furious public backlash over his short-lived, now-deleted podcast interview with British alt-right extremist Tommy Robinson. But behind the corporate carnage lies a brutal personal betrayal.
Sarah Abo and Tom Steinfort have been the main fixture on screen since Karl Stefanovic’s departure. Picture: Supplied
Abo, who is currently pregnant, now faces the fallout of Stefanovic’s sudden pivot to anti-immigration rhetoric—a move that cuts deep for the first-generation immigrant.
“Sarah has done what few women in breakfast television have managed to do, which is to create a real rapport and genuine chemistry with Karl,” a source told Daily Mail.
The heavily guarded bond between the co-hosts was forged through years of grueling 3:30 AM alarms and intense off-screen solidarity.
“They are absolutely close friends. Through all their early mornings at the desk together, he had a front-row seat to her fertility struggles and the pain of her miscarriages, and she was one of his biggest supporters and sounding boards.”
There has been major fallout from Stefanovic’s podcast episode with Tommy Robinson. Picture: YouTube
Stefanovic reportedly learned of his immediate termination via an in-flight Wi-Fi message while flying mid-air from London to Cannes. He was en route to film an episode of The Karl Stefanovic Show with Piers Morgan—an interview arranged before the axe fell. Now unemployed, a defiant Stefanovic declared he “could do whatever he wanted now”.
“They trusted each other. So for him to go down this path of platforming anti-immigration influencers – when she herself is a first-generation immigrant – right at a time she’s about to have a baby feels like a real slap in the face to Sarah and their friendship.”
During the fiery sit-down in Cannes, Morgan questioned the wisdom of giving a platform to an anti-Islamist fanatic, though he branded Nine’s sacking of the host “ridiculous”. Stefanovic remained entirely unrepentant, admitting the Robinson footage was “hot” but doubling down on his actions.
“The (Tommy) Robinson interview I did was getting a fair bit of play, criticism, all that sort of stuff,” Stefanovic said. “We’re over in the UK getting all these interviews about what’s happening in the UK with politics. Where are the voices, what are they saying? And I thought Tommy Robinson was a legitimate interview for us to pick up. I put it up on air and a couple of days later … boom.”
Abo and Stefanovic have been close friends for over a decade. Picture: Michael Klein
As the fallout continues to rock Australian media, Stefanovic is digging his heels in, hiding behind the banner of journalistic liberty.
“As you know I’m all about freedom of speech and I think it is legitimately a part of the story in Great Britain,” Stefanovic said.