2023 celeb scandals, hatches and dispatches: That’s stumps on Clarkey and a year of big hits
Welcome to your 2023 scandals unwrapped: All the breakups, make ups, hook ups and break downs that made headlines and spun the rumour mill this year
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It was a big year for scandal … starting in a park in Noosa.
Welcome to your 2023 Sydney scandals unwrapped: All the breakups, make ups, hook ups and break downs that made headlines and spun the rumour mill this year.
NOOSA FRACAS
In January, Jade Yarbrough was enjoying a laid back summer holiday in Noosa with family, friends and her then-partner, former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke.
But overnight, she found herself in the middle of one of the biggest news stories of the year when a video of the couple embroiled in a heated spat in a public park went viral, sending her and everyone involved to ground.
In the clip, Yarbrough could be heard accusing Clarke of “f**king” Pip Edwards, who he dated between mid-2020 and late-2021, and slapped him. Today Show host Karl Stefanovic and his wife Jasmine — Yarbrough’s sister — attempted to intervene.
At the time, P.E. Nation founder Edwards distanced herself from the public spat, saying: “This is not my circus. Yet again, Michael in his true nature has not taken responsibility for his actions and I was blatantly lied to.”
The fall out from ‘the Noose fracas’ has clung to all three public figures throughout the year.
“There’s no rule book for navigating constant headlines, public life and heartbreak,” Yarbrough told Stellar magazine in September.
“Relationships can be tough and complicated and most people don’t have theirs splashed on the front page of the paper or dissected on breakfast TV. I felt heartbroken, and deeply embarrassed. I just wanted to hide forever.”
Yarbrough and Edwards wound up at the same Melbourne Cup Derby Day after-party in November. The women “kept to separate sides of the room” at Beverly Rooftop, and “made a conscious effort to steer clear” of one another, with onlookers describing the public encounter as “awkward”.
There has been much speculation about whether will-they won’t-they couple Yarbrough and Clarke had reunited, fuelled by a European holiday they shared with friends that month.
Almost one year later, Clarke has secured a return to cricket punditry for the first time since the infamous incident. He was effectively dumped from a six-figure commentary gig he was set to take up in India, but will make a comeback on the ESPN cricket airwaves.
ALAN JONES ALLEGATIONS
Veteran broadcaster Alan Jones has strongly denied allegations of indecent assault made against him by a number of men during his influential radio career.
The Sydney Morning Herald claimed Jones, a former speechwriter for prime minister Malcolm Fraser, used his position of power to prey on men, allegedly groping or inappropriately touching them without their consent. One former 2GB employee, who alleges he was repeatedly inappropriately touched by Jones, said: “He cannot die without people knowing what he’s done.”
A statement released by his lawyers, Mark O’Brien Legal on December 7th, said allegations against Jones are demonstrably false.
Since the news broke, numerous public figures involved in the 82-year-old’s life have made public comment, including his butler of 18 years David Allan and Australian Test cricket champion Brett Lee. Jones stepped down as chairman of the Talent Development Project Foundation one day after the story broke, “while he resolves his defamation action against the media”, according to CEO Anne Fitzgerald.
SONIA’S LOGIES SPEECH
The 63rd TV Week Logie Awards – where Sam Pang smashed it as the first host in more than a decade and Sonia Kruger took home gold – saw 1.29 million tuning in nationally (877,000 metro) for Seven on Sunday night, in the first year of the award show’s return to the network.
While social media reaction and reviews for Pang were glowing, Kruger’s Gold Logie acceptance was, in her own words, a “ slow-motion car crash of television”.
Kruger made a lighthearted dig at the previous year’s winner Hammish Blake by paraphrasing their mutual agent as saying: “I think people are a little over Hamish.”
The Voice and Big Brother host later revealed she’d left her speech in her bag, and tried to “wing it” on stage.
“I tried to crack a few jokes that (in my head) were funny, but went down like a lead balloon with the equally exhausted audience. In that moment, I wanted a trapdoor to open up and drop me straight through it to a Chinese restaurant – which is my other happy place.”
LOGIES RED CARPET GATE CRASH
Organisers and TV networks say they didn’t invite her, but one Sydney influencer made international best-dressed lists after hitting the Logies red carpet … from the exit.
Early reports from TV’s night of nights noted it was strange that Suzan Mutesi, 37, was walking the red carpet backwards.
Mutesi has been dubbed Sydney’s “sham” influencer on numerous occasions, accused of purchasing her 1.2 million Instagram followers (which she denies), and elaborate photoshopping. In August, she was snapped crying beside her broken down Mazda outside Australian Fashion Week in a $20 dress.
Mutesi was not invited to by the TV Week Logie Awards organisers, but “baffled” her way past a bouncer according to three witnesses.
Initially, she claimed she wasn’t seated inside the ceremony with her “many famous friends” because she was unwell.
“I had friends who were doing interviews and media, so I decided not to sit on any tables just in case, and viewed from the top,” Mutesi told the Telegraph.
Later, she revealed she’d purchased a General Admission ticket for $99.
DENI TODOROVIC’S FALL FROM GRACE
Controversial social media influencer Deni Todorovic was dropped by multiple brands, including Bonds and Minus 18, after detailing stories of drug use online in May.
Todorovic, who was mentally unwell, had a dramatic run-in with airport staff and the federal police before flying to Sydney for Australian Fashion Week.
Australian Federal Police were called to Melbourne domestic airport to speak with the content creator, after he clashed with Jetstar staff over a bag charge.
Todorovic said he had been subjected to “homophobic and racist” behaviour (which Jetstar categorically denied) and subsequently dropped his pants and wrote with black marker pen, ‘Jetstar, suck my d***’, across the top of both thighs.
“Two men then approached us from the airport. All it was over was an extra 10.5 kgs, which I think is like $100. We had this big argument over $100. I almost got arrested over $100 f***ing dollars,” he said.
The 34-year-old, who uses multiple pronouns including he/him, was photographed sitting on the ground outside the terminal, wearing a dress he said channelled “iconic” Carrie Bradshaw in Sex In The City.
The self-described “author, broadcaster, educator, tranny, and wog” lasted less than 24 hours at Fashion Week after being turned away from an off-site fashion show, then hit with a restraining order by a former partner, and making public rants about brands and former colleagues.
Todorovic suffered a public breakdown following the premiere of the Tina Turner Musical one day later and was involuntarily admitted to a NSW mental health facility, which he said was “life changing”. He was later charged in court for vandalising his ex-partner’s property and scrutinised by fans for not donating the proceeds of his Trans Lives Matter T-shirts to charity, as promised. Todorovic claimed the goods were “stolen”, before they could be delivered.
MODEL’S BABY BOMBSHELL
Top Australian model Jarrod Scott found himself at the centre of a paternity battle in June, with a former lover seeking recognition of her five-year-old daughter she claims is his firstborn child.
Costa Rican model and talent agency director Natasha Fleming briefly dated then-New York-based Scott in 2017.
Fleming spoke to The Daily Telegraph from Costa Rica, saying she was sharing her story publicly after years of attempts to have Scott, arguably one of Australia’s top male model exports ever, recognise their daughter.
“I told him I was pregnant in April 2017 and we had a 20-minute phone call,” she said.
In April, Scott, 33, announced the birth of a daughter, Clementine, with his partner, Brioney Prier.
When contacted, Scott said he “had a very brief relationship with Natasha in 2017”.
“We were both single at the time. I don’t know whether what she says about her daughter is true. I intend to have a dialogue with Natasha about that, but will do so privately … I do not intend to respond further publicly.”
The Telegraph cited text messages from Scott to Fleming, many of a sexual nature, and including holiday photos from New York, phone call logs, and social media interactions during that period. Fleming said Scott did not respond when she informed him she was keeping the baby, nor two years later in 2019.
Abortions are illegal in Costa Rica and carry criminal penalties, except in cases where birth would endanger the mother’s life.
The 36-year-old provided transcripts of their text conversations, in which Scott told her to stop taking contraception because it’s “crap for your body” and “more naughty when we do it”.
She said she wants acknowledgment for her child, who has never known a dad, and could also have a baby half-sister. “I was pregnant, alone, and watching his single, jetsetting life on Instagram,” Fleming said.
“He has a daughter to whom he has given nothing in all these years, neither affection nor economic, in total abandonment.”
FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP ‘SPAT’
One of Ireland’s star players refused to shake the hand of Australia’s Caitlin Foord before the Matildas’ triumphant opening World Cup game in July — and went viral.
In what was dubbed an epic on-pitch spat, social media footage showed the two team’s players lining up to shake hands, fist bump and high five before the match kicked off.
Ruesha Littlejohn seemed to pull her hand away as Foord was going in for a handshake.
The Irish midfielder then shook the next Matilda player’s hand.
After the game, Littlejohn and Foord seemed to confront each other. Australia prevailed 1-0 over Ireland and as the celebrations began. Littlejohn appeared to approach Foord on the pitch, but was held back by her teammates.
The incident set tongues wagging about Littlejohn’s split with her partner of seven years and Ireland captain Katie McCabe, a friend of Foord.
Shortly before the World Cup, pictures were shared of Foord and McCabe on holiday with friends on the Spanish island of Ibiza shortly,
There was no suggestion Foord had anything to do with the Irish couple’s break-up.
RUSSELL BRAND ALLEGATIONS
Russell Brand was the name on everyone’s lips in September, as the UK comedian stood accused of accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period at the height of his fame.
The initial allegations from five women took place between 2006 and 2013 and were the result of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.
The allegations prompted resurfacing of Brand’s historical TV interviews around the world, including in Australia. Veteran TV host Sam Armytage described her 2009 encounter with Brand on Seven’s Weekend Sunrise as “touchy-feely”
“Obviously he was always rather outrageous in his persona,” Armytage told Confidential.
“But I do recall him being very touchy-feely and thinking it was pretty full-on given I didn’t know him.”
The segment was titled ‘The Bombastic Brit’ and labelled an “infamous and intimate encounter”.
Armytage commented on the interaction after separate videos of encounters between Brand and Liz Hayes, and Fifi Box resurfaced. A clip from a past segment on Sunrise shows Brand straddling then kissing Box on the cheek as she attempted to interview him for his 2010 film Get Him to the Greek. In a 2012 interview with Hayes, Brand could be seen planting a kiss on her lips while trying to unclip her bra as she interviewed him for 60 Minutes.
‘NOT OKAY’: MOLAN’S PUB GROPING INCIDENT
After ‘grabbing, not just touching … almost clawing’ her bum, the bloke kicked out of a pub for groping Erin Molan apologised to her boyfriend, not to her.
Molan recounted the “embarrassing” October incident that led to a Sydney man being temporarily banned from a Mosman pub.
The 2Day FM radio host shared that her partner Todd Selby got into “a confrontation” at the Buena with the man who grabbed her behind, who was known to him, and noted that the man later apologised to her boyfriend, not to her.
“[He was] grabbing, not just touching, but almost clawing back there in a very private place,” Molan told her radio co-hosts Hughesy and Ed.
“I felt like I was in shock at the time and not really understanding what had happened.
“I didn’t even react then, which I think back, should I have reacted or said something? I think a lot of women can relate. You sometimes don’t know what to do.”
Speaking candidly about the encounter, Molan emphasised that non consensual touching in bars is something most women have experienced at some point in their lives.
“What’s interesting is when he came back over, he didn’t even look at me. He didn’t even try and deny it. He was looking over at my partner and kept saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.
“My partner got pretty angry.”
The Buena’s general manager told The Daily Telegraph his staff were “very concerned” about the “unusual incident” and barred the man from the venue for six months.
ROXY JACENKO’S OZEMPIC OVERDOSE
PR guru Roxy Jacenko revealed that she’d almost died in September after overdosing on diabetes drug Ozempic while trying to lose weight.
Struggling to lose the 15kg she gained after using Tamoxifen, a hormone therapy used to treat breast cancer, Jacenko turned to the diabetes drug which has been branded Hollywood’s latest weight-loss trend.
“I tried not eating much, I tried cutting out alcohol and I tried exercising. It didn’t work, I didn’t shed the weight,” Jacenko told The Saturday Telegraph.
“I thought, ‘I am reading and hearing about Ozempic all the time. I am trying it’.
“I went to my doctor and I begged him and he said, ‘Roxy go and look in the mirror’. He made me walk into his room and look at myself in the mirror and he said, ‘I am not giving you a prescription, you don’t need it’.
“So I went somewhere else and I got it. You would be blown away by the number of people who will give you scripts for that stuff.”
Jacenko said she behaved much like a “junkie” when she finally tracked down the injection-based medication six months ago, for $2500 in Nowra.
What followed was uncontrollable vomiting, non-stop “epilepsy type” shaking, and three days in a drug overdose clinic where she was told her organs could have shut down.
“I thought I was actually going to die,” she said.
“I have had cancer, radiation therapy, all of that. It doesn’t even compare to how bad I felt when I took this drug.
Jacenko was taken to St Vincent’s by ambulance, where staff struggled to treat the overdose.
Jacenko said Ozempic use among Sydney’s celebrity set was “widespread”, fuelling the worldwide shortage of the medication. “Everyone is doing it,” she said. “You would be blown away by the well-known people who are doing it and are saying they are not.”
FOUR DAYS IN THE JUNGLE
Despite quitting after just four nights in the jungle, Kerri-Anne Kennerley will not break the record for the shortest stint on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here.
That honour remains with Aussie tennis bad boy, Bernard Tomic, who quit the show after three nights when he was a contestant back in 2018.
Kennerley, 69, spectacularly called time on the reality show in April, after coming to blows with her fellow campmates when she refused to take part in any challenges.
“I am very disappointed that I couldn’t stay,” Kennerley told Confidential after quitting.
She and former MAFS reality contestant Domenica Calarco fell out monumentally.
Calarco was particularly annoyed that Kennerley had negotiated special dispensation in her contract to be able to wear makeup in the jungle camp where celebrities survive on basic rations and compete in trials for extra food rations.
“Literally no respect or no decency for anyone but yourself,” Calarco said to Kennerley. “I have never met anyone so self-centred in my life.”
“I am a tough old bird but that doesn’t mean what people say aren’t hurtful,” Kennerly said of the public’s reaction. “The abuse was quite overwhelming.”
KIIS FM’S $200 MILLION DEAL
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson officially signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Australian Radio Network that will see them remain on-air for another 11 years.
The Sydney radio duo signed their blockbuster new contracts live on-air in November, telling listeners on The Kyle & Jackie O Show that they have extended their contract with ARN for another decade worth a reported $200 million.
The landmark deal will also see their show broadcast in Melbourne from next year, as the KIIS FM Melbourne presenters were axed.
There has been much debate over whether the Sydney duo will or won’t be able “rule Melbourne” from afar.
Sandilands hit back at The Project co-host Steve Price, who called him a “grubby buffoon” following the news. “Kyle’s a grubby buffoon, and I don’t think grubby buffoons work in Melbourne,” Price said.
Sandilands fired back, calling Price a “gronk” and “piece of shit”, also calling his naysayers “all demented”.
“Who cares if Melbourne doesn’t like us? We still get paid.”
Beloved Melbourne broadcaster Neil Mitchell said he “wouldn’t listen to [Kyle] in a fit”, but “he’s a buffoon who should not be underestimated.”
The SAG-AFTRA strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill for much of this year finally ended on November 9.
HOLLYWOOD STRIKES SHINE LIGHT ON POOR PAY
The SAG-AFTRA strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill for much of this year finally ended on November 9.
Australian actor Luke Cook revealed what working actors in the US were actually getting paid to appear in popular streaming shows.
The Sydney-born, LA-based actor has starred in the likes of Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Katy Keene and Dynasty, and Hulu’s Dollface.
“I am not a millionaire,” Cook said in the video posted to TikTok, when The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), representing more than 150,000 actors went on strike, joining screenwriters who walked out in May to create Hollywood’s first industry-wide shutdown in 63 years.
“I drive a 2010 Mazda S3, and my previous car was a 2006 Ford Tarus,” the Guardians of the Galaxy actor said.
Cook lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kara and their two children, and says he has to work two additional jobs to supplement his income. For his supporting role on TV show Dollface: “I got paid per episode, which is two weeks of work for US$7500. Then it’s taxed, then a manager takes ten per cent, an agent takes ten per cent and then a lawyer takes 5 per cent.
“I am one rung below a series regular, who is making maybe $100,000 per episode.”
While specifics of the historic agreement reached between the major studios and actor’s union are yet to be revealed, the proposed new actors’ contract would boost minimum pay, residual payments for shows streamed online and healthcare funding. It is also believed to include new rules stopping studios from using artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of actors without payment or approval.
For better, for worse? MAFS Australia slammed for being toxic and outdated
Reality shows like Married at First Sight are outdated and dangerous and offer nothing but sensationalism at the expense of real human lives, writes Briana Domjen.
Gigi and Bella Hadid’s brother spotted in Sydney
The muso, model and actor brother of supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid has popped up in Sydney. Here’s what he’s up to.