Karl Stefanovic lifts lid on ex-Today co-hosts, including Lisa Wilkinson and Jess Rowe

Karl Stefanovic has spoke candidly about the highs and lows of his time with former co-hosts, including Lisa Wilkinson and Jess Rowe.

Karl Stefanovic has opened up about the many high-profile co-hosts he’s shared the Today show desk with, detailing his relationships with the likes of Lisa Wilkinson, Jessica Rowe and Tracy Grimshaw.

In a wide-ranging interview with Stellar’s Something To Talk About podcast, the 50-year-old spoke candidly about the highs and lows – and occasional controversies – of his time on Nine’s breakfast program, which began in February 2005 when he joined then-Today host Grimshaw.

“I wasn’t overly nervous, I just knew that I didn’t know enough,” Stefanovic admitted, adding that it took “some time” for him to feel he was no longer out of his depth.

A 2005 promo shot of Grimshaw and Stefanovic. Picture: Nine

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At the end of his first year in the hot seat, Grimshaw announced she was leaving to replace Ray Martin as host of A Current Affair – and Stefanovic recalled the cheeky way she’d dropped the bombshell news to him.

“I remember I was late for work because I’d left my shoes at home – I ended up getting Ray Martin’s shoes,” he told podcast host Sarrah Le Marquand.

“So I came into the studio like, ‘Hey, Trace, look at this. I’ve got Ray Martin’s shoes.’

“Tracy leans across and goes, ‘You got his shoes? I got his job.’ That’s how she broke it to me. She denies that story, but it’s 100 per cent accurate.”

Stefanovic added that she’d once told him to “stop being so needy” while he’d been asking about an interview.

“It was a great lesson, because I didn’t feel like I was,” he said.

“But it’s a tough business. You’ve got to be self-sustained, you can’t rely on anyone else. So that was fantastic, particularly when she just deserted me and I cried.”

Following Grimshaw’s departure, the Today show stumbled into arguably its most controversial chapter, with the short-lived appointment of Jessica Rowe as the new co-host.

Reflecting on that turbulent time, Stefanovic admitted Rowe had been “pilloried”.

Stefanovic admitted Rowe had been “pilloried’ as his co-host. Picture: Channel 9

The mum-of-two was sacked from Today after returning from maternity leave – and her departure made headlines at the time when it was alleged then-Nine boss Eddie McGuire had spoken about wanting to “bone” (fire) Rowe during a meeting with Nine executives.

“It was shocking, the treatment that she had. She was called the most heinous things, and I was just trying to survive,” he explained on Stellar’s Something To Talk About podcast.

“I’ve apologised to Jess since then, but at the time I just didn’t know how to navigate my own future, let alone be there for her in the way that I should have.”

Before her dramatic contract dispute with Nine led to an abrupt defection to Network Ten, Stefanovic’s longest-serving co-host was Lisa Wilkinson, who joined Today in 2007 and stayed on for 10 years.

Plenty has been speculated about the state of their relationship after her exit from the show, but Stefanovic told Stellar that he doesn’t “waste any time” of his life “thinking about any negative parts” of their long professional stint together.

“But this I will say about Lisa: genuinely adored working with her. I found her to be an incredibly interesting, intelligent, funny woman,” he insisted.

Karl covers this week’s Stellar.

And lifts the lid on his relationship with co-hosts like Georgie Gardner.

“She taught me so much about the craft of conversation, and we had a really beautiful relationship. So there is no ill will. Only great things came from that.”

Stefanovic added that the breakfast hours of TV made for on-air relationships which were “not normal”.

“You wake up at three in the morning, go to work, see someone in only the way their partner would … I’ve got on my Vegemite pyjamas and bare feet,” he joked.

“It’s not normal to sit next to someone and have a spirited argument at that hour. It’s a miracle that people go beyond three years – we did 10.”

Stefanovic said he “genuinely adored’ working with Wilkinson. Picture: Nine

The longtime breakfast TV host currently sits alongside Sarah Abo at the desk, for which he describes himself as “so fortunate”.

After her departure from Seven and brief stint filling in for the Today hosts over the Christmas break, there had been some speculation that Samantha Armytage may be the next to join Stefanovic on the program.

However, as he told the Something To Talk About podcast, after all these years, he’s not interested in being part of a Today rebrand again.

“In this game, there’s stuff you have control of and there’s stuff you don’t. At any point on any given day, I can be replaced. The show is bigger than I am,” Stefanovic pointed out.

“I don’t see Sarah ever being replaced. And I genuinely have no interest in working with anyone else.

“That’s not a slight on Sam. I’ve done 20 years, and I don’t know about going through all that

with another person. I’m closer to the end than the start. That’s the reality.”

Read, watch and listen to the exclusive interview with Karl Stefanovic in Stellar today (Sunday). Inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA); at stellarmag.com.au, or Something To Talk About, wherever you get your podcasts.

Originally published as Karl Stefanovic lifts lid on ex-Today co-hosts, including Lisa Wilkinson and Jess Rowe