Karl Stefanovic sues newspaper and columnist over pay-cut reports
Nine’s resurrected star Karl Stefanovic has launched defamation action against a rival media company and columnist.
Nine’s resurrected star Karl Stefanovic has launched defamation action against a rival media company, in a sign he will not shy away from generating headlines despite being sacked from the Today show a year ago amid negative publicity about his personal life.
Stefanovic, only weeks after being reinstated to helm Nine’s struggling breakfast show in 2020, has filed court documents against The Sunday Telegraph and columnist Annette Sharp.
He claims his reputation has been “greatly injured” by a series of articles that suggested he would take a pay cut to return to the Today show.
The legal action was launched in the Federal Court on Monday against Nationwide News (publisher of The Sunday Telegraph and The Australian) and Sharp, seeking unspecified damages, aggravated damages and for the online articles to be taken down.
Stefanovic, 45, has hired defamation lawyer Mark O’Brien and barrister Bruce McClintock SC to fight his case.
Court documents state that he should be paid aggravated damages in part because of a tweet by Sharp to her followers last month that said “this Karl Stefanovic restoration really peeves me. Why are men allowed to fail in our society and women aren’t?”
Stefanovic was dumped as a Today show host a year ago after the break-up of his marriage and the high-profile Mexican wedding to shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough.
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Distractions over his personal life were partly blamed for a decline in Today’s ratings at the time, particularly among the crucial female demographic.
However, Nine recently announced he would return to anchor the breakfast show with Allison Langdon next year, replacing Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight, whose groundbreaking appointment as two female hosts had “regrettably not been reflected in ratings”.
The articles published in The Sunday Telegraph and on its website last month said Stefanovic was set to take as much as a $1m pay cut to return to his old job.
Stefanovic’s statement of claim says the article falsely implied he “had so seriously breached the standards expected of him” by Nine that it caused the TV network to “dock him $1m in salary” under his contract.
The court documents allege that a second article, “Charm offensive brings Karl back to breakfast”, falsely implied that Stefanovic had “by devious self-promotion, duped a senior Nine executive into paying him a ludicrously high salary for the worst four years in the 38-year history of the Today show”.
According to the court filing, the article described Stefanovic as an “expert snake-charmer” who had “the gift of the gab with men in power”.
It said he had endured “having once again whispered into the ear of a CEO and promised without proof of evidence something he is yet to deliver to Nine, a sustained ratings win”.
It said the man persuaded of his comeback potential was Nine chief executive Hugh Marks.
The claim also relates to two similar online articles, which Stefanovic claims have also injured his business, personal and professional reputation and brought him into public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt.
A directions hearing will be held on February 11 at the Federal Court in Sydney.
Nine Entertainment and News Corp Australia declined to comment. Stefanovic and his agent did not respond to inquiries from The Australian.
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