No longer Mrs Stefanovic, Cassandra Thorburn is now dancing to her own tune

Cassandra Thorburn is determined to make her own name after years of being known as Mrs Stefanovic. On Monday night, she’ll make her debut on Channel 10’s new-look Dancing With The Stars. SEE VIDEO OF HER INTERVIEW WITH JMO.

Cassandra Thorburn is determined to make her own name after years of being known as Mrs Stefanovic.

The ex-wife of television presenter Karl Stefanovic will, on Monday night, make her debut on Channel 10’s new-look Dancing With The Stars and acknowledges some might question why she was cast on the reality show and indeed why she signed up.

Cassandra Thorburn and Marco de Angelis are dance partners on the new season of Dancing with the Stars on Channel 10. Picture: Richard Dobson

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“This is giving me a fresh start,” the mother-of-three told The Saturday Telegraph during a break in rehearsals with her dance partner Marco De Angelis.

“It is a fresh start to a new year and a great outlook. What I can control is this situation now. I can control being able to present myself as me. It was the right decision for me, 2019 is a
new year.”

Karl Stefanovic and then-wife Cassandra Thorburn on the red carpet for the 2011 Logies. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Thorburn, 47, was married to former Today host Stefanovic for 21 years when the couple separated in 2016. They have three children — Jackson, Ava and River.

“There’s the Cass that people think of as the former Mrs Stefanovic. I was never a Mrs Stefanovic. I have always been Cass Thorburn,” she explained.

“That was how I was perceived and rightly I guess if you are in a relationship for a very long time you are perceived in a certain way.

“Staying in the background does not mean that I had no interest in the media. It doesn’t mean I didn’t contribute or still have an interest. It just meant people knew me as that. That is what I was put up as, photographs for magazines and papers and to go to events and that is who you are and that is okay.”

Thorburn is acutely aware of the ongoing interest in her and Stefanovic’s breakup but it isn’t something she wants to talk about.

It’s the same with her ex’s lavish Mexican wedding to new partner Jasmine Yarbrough at the end of last year, after which he was sacked from the now beleaguered Today.

“There are no sides. My kids are my priority,” she said. “The fascination has been odd but I partly believe that has been because people were interested and wanted to know who I am and that is why Dancing With The Stars is a good thing for me. If they like me as a person, which hopefully they will, then I will be able to move on with a career.”

Thorburn denied her mental health had suffered through the breakdown of her marriage and wouldn’t say whether or not she is currently dating.

“My mental health has always been really good because for me, the one thing I am not is a self-doubter,” she said. “I like who I am and I’ve liked getting to know who I am on my own and getting to make decisions for myself.

Karl Stefanovic getting remarried to Jasmine Yarbrough in Mexico.

“ Things have changed for me but I’ve never really not liked who I am.” While seen by the public as a dutiful wife for more than two decades, Thorburn had her own career before meeting Stefanovic.

Thorburn started in community radio at the age of 13 and worked at ABC Rockhampton where she and Stefanovic were rookie journalists.

Now, she feels, is her time to return to work after devoting years to her children.

One of her first projects was writing a children’s book titled Leo Lion’s Big Bed!

“I always planned on going back to work,” she said.

“River is in high school and I always said I would try and start working more when he went to Year 7 so the timing was impeccable.”

Thorburn believes she has something to say that others will relate to.

The 2019 cast of Dancing With The Stars, (from left) Jimmy Rees, Cassandra Thorburn, Constance Hall, Miguel Maestre, Olympia Valance, Curtly Ambrose, Michelle Bridges, Denise Scott, Samuel Johnson, Courtney Act and Jett Kenny. Picture: Channel 10.

She believes “there is a huge movement towards more mature women having a voice in society.

“It is all to do with gender equality and people realising mature women have opinions that are valid, that we have a voice in society, we vote, we do all the things that more mature women do,” she said.

“So I think that there’s this push towards the opinions of mature women and this is my opportunity which is why I’ve started doing Studio 10 and I will continue to do that after this.”

In fact, it was after an appearance on Studio 10 that executives offered her a spot on Dancing With The Stars.

“They asked me upstairs straight away,” she said.

Dancing with the Stars cast members Samuel Johnson, Cassandra Thorburn and Curtly Ambros.

“If you are offered something like Dancing With The Stars, what an opportunity. At first I thought it was a joke, like there is no way but then I thought, ‘people will get to see my personality, who I am and actually meet me’, so that is why I signed up to it.”

Thorburn’s father, Max, a Victorian news reader, was also one of the motivating factors. She spoke to her father about it two days before his death last year.

“He said not to have regrets,” she recalled.

“And I said to him it would be fun to learn to dance.”

There’s a charity element to Dancing With The Stars for Thorburn, who will donate any winnings or money made from phone voting to Palliative Care Australia in her father’s honour.

Thorburn says she will donate any winning to Palliative Care Australia. Picture: Richard Dobson

“When the treatment wasn’t working anymore, my dad wanted to go home to Mildura,” she said. “You can’t get cancer treatment in many country towns — Mildura being a big country town you still can’t get cancer treatment. His wish was to die at home and you wouldn’t be able to do that if you didn’t have palliative care.”