Richard Reid on Karl Stefanovic: ‘I had trouble with the way he treated other talent on the show’

After revealing intimate details about Karl Stefanovic while in the jungle for I’m A Celeb, Richard Reid has spoken in detail of the pair’s odd relationship.

Looking back, Richard Reid has so many fond memories of his eight years on the Today show but there is one person he hasn’t remained friends with — Karl Stefanovic.

In a revealing interview with news.com.au, Reid revealed he has issues with Stefanovic that didn’t sit well with him while he was on Today, and still don’t till this day.

Reid, 51, left Today after contract negotiations failed with Channel 9 back in 2015.

“I always try to treat everyone with respect and kindness, and Karl, I personally had trouble with the way he treated other talent on the show,” Reid said.

“He wasn’t very friendly with Richard (Wilkins).

“He was always putting Richard down and that just didn’t sit well with me.”

When Reid was reporting gossip on Today, the show was at its height.

With Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson as hosts, Steve Jacobs reading the weather, Wilkins reporting entertainment and Reid gossip, they were a formidable team that often challenged Sunrise in the ratings.

However Reid has revealed despite all that on air chemistry between the team perhaps it all wasn’t good behind the scenes.

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2008: A seemingly friendly Karl Stefanovic with Richard Reid at Today Show drinks to celebrate the 2008 Spring Racing Carnival.

Reid paints a picture of Stefanovic being the odd one out — now that he and Lisa Wilkinson have left, and Richard Wilkins has more of a role on Today Extra.

“I hang out with Richard all the time,” Reid said.

“Of course with Lisa over at Ten, we always find a spare dressing room to catch up and gossip like school girls.

“But I think with Karl, he has he is own life and his own agenda and his own problems that have never included me.”

After winning I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Reid is now a regular panellist on Studio 10.

It’s a job he loves and cherishes.

Reid said while he and Stefanovic were always “professionally friendly,” these latest comments will add fuel to the fire after he spoke publicly about Stefanovic while in the jungle in South Africa in February.

He told fellow celebrity Angie Kent that Stefanovic had issues with balding.

“So I go into the hair room, and this guy looks up and he’s kinda like balding,” he said.

“It was Karl Stefanovic without his spray-on hair.”

Reid said since that comment made news around Australia he has never heard from his former work colleague.

“I never heard from him but Karl is the first one to laugh at himself,” Reid said.

“We all know Karl has more important things to worry about then my on air comments these days.”

Then Today Show cast at the 'This Is It' film premiere: Lisa Wilkinson, Karl Stefanovic, Georgie Gardner, Richard Reid, Roy Spagnola Cameron Williams

2010: (L-R) Members of the Today show Richard Reid, Georgie Gardner, Karl Stefanovic, Lisa Wilkinson and Richard Wilkins arrive on the red carpet for the David Jones Autumn/Winter Fashion Launch.

Reid believes that after he left in 2015 the Today show changed course.

It is now struggling in the ratings with Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner as hosts, but Nine are determined to stick with it.

“As the current climate has shown, Today has been on a downward trajectory for the past three or four years but it was so slow that no-one noticed,” Reid said.

“I would say when Steve Jacobs and I left it was the start of the slow erosion of camaraderie and mateship behind the scenes of the Today show.

“In hindsight, I’m like ‘oh my god I’m psychic,’ and I didn’t even know it.

“Cleary the writing was very faintly on the wall for that show for a while.

“I don’t want to sound mean, but that’s what I’m saying.”

For Reid he is happy with his semi-regular gig for Studio 10 and his new colleagues, some he has worked with and known for a long time, including Sarah Harris who worked with Stefanovic and him on Today in the past.

“I love Studio 10,” he said.

“I’ve known Sarah Harris since she wore pigtails practically. It’s so wonderful to see her blossom and come into her own. She’s always been so talented and fun.

“I’ve worked with Kerri-Anne Kennerley forever as well. This is our third time working together. It’s a real love fest on the show.

“It’s just going to get stronger and better. They had a rough patch last year with people leaving, so I think now it’s getting back on track.

“It’s on its way.”

Internationally renowned entertainment guru, Richard Reid.

Then: Richard Reid, Richard Wilkins, Steve Jacobs, Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Reid always had a love of everything celebrity and show business from a young age in the United States, where he grew up in the Portland, Oregon suburb of Salem.

“I loved celebrities and movies ever since I was a child,” he told news.com.au.

“Actually it was something that my mother and I were able to really giggle about and have fun together with. She loved movies and I loved gossip. It really all started then.”

He got a job in his twenties as an autocue operator at a television news station in Seattle, Washington and never looked back.

“It really taught me that you’re only as good as your smallest part, and there is no small job in news or television,” he said.

“Running the autocue is one of the most important jobs, but it’s an entry-level job.

“So it really showed me that everyone is equal.”

It was on Today that Australia fell in love with him and after a couple of quiet years, they did so all over again on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here this year.

The support from everyday Australians is something he never takes for granted. He is very happy for his second chance.

“I’ve always thought that for Australia to unofficially adopt has been a real blessing in my life,” he said.

“Yet now, to be crowned the King of the Jungle by the Australian public, I feel like Sally Field getting her second Oscar.

“You guys really like me, you really do. I 100 per cent believe that now and I cherish it all the more, I really do,

“There is no way on the any universe did I think I was going to win.”

Richard Reid for the 2019 edition of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!

Renowned Hollywood entertainment correspondent Richard Reid Picture: Stewart McLean

Reid said he was so convinced he was going to leave the show early that he made plans in his mind to visit Cape Town, after so many of the production crew were saying good things about the South African City.

“By about day 23 or 24, I was like, tick tock, I’ve got a vacation to get to,” he said.

“But it didn’t happen, and by the end I was thinking to myself if I came second or third I would be pretty mad that I didn’t get my vacation.

“But in the end I ended up winning and didn’t have that vacation, but I’m pretty happy being crowned King of the Jungle.”

The show has only raised his profile; he was recently named an ambassador for Delta Airlines.

“I’ve been working with an organisation called Visit USA over the past year that promotes American tourism in Australia,” he said.

“Through them I developed a really close working relationships with Delta, now I’m an ambassador for them encouraging Australians to fly to Los Angeles.”

He is in Los Angeles at the moment but will return back to Australia in May, and will be back on the panel of Studio 10 very soon.

Luke Dennehy is a Melbourne based entertainment journalist. Follow him @LukeDennehy