‘It was an emotional rollercoaster’: TV star reveals why she called off wedding

Amid her new role on the Today Show, Danika Mason addresses why she and her ex-fiance cancelled their 2023 wedding, and how she healed a broken heart.

Less than 24 hours after arriving home from Las Vegas, where she’d covered the opening round of the NRL, Nine Network reporter Danika Mason sat under the glare of studio lights (and media attention) as Today’s new sports presenter.

The 34-year-old journalist, who grew up a footy-loving athlete in Sydney’s north-west suburbs, had landed her dream job.

The only problem was, so had her boyfriend. That same day at the beginning of March, Liam Knight – a former forward for the Canterbury Bulldogs – announced he had signed on to play for Hull FC in the UK’s Super League.

“We’re lucky, though,” says Mason, who tells Stellar the pair will rely on video calls and text messages during their seven months apart.

“We can celebrate each other’s wins from afar, [and] it’s probably beneficial that he doesn’t have to hear a 3.45am alarm go off every morning!”

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

A decade after she began her Nine Network career producing sport for Today, Mason steps into the role vacated by Alex Cullen, who was stood down in January for accepting $50,000 from Melbourne mogul Adrian Portelli to call him a “McLaren Man” on air instead of his more common nickname, the “Lambo Guy”.

If fate hadn’t put her in the Today hot seat, would she have been on a plane with Knight? “No, I don’t think so,” Mason replies.

“My career is definitely in rugby league here. I don’t think he would ever consider that something he would ask of me. He knows I love my job.”

It’s that kind of unconditional support that Mason says she has been looking for in

a partner.

In September 2023, she broke off her two-year engagement to personal trainer Todd Liubinskas, cancelling their wedding just three weeks before they were due to marry.

As news of the couple’s sudden split played out amid rumours and headlines, Mason didn’t skip a beat.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

“It was one of the busiest times and probably the pinnacle of our season coming into the grand final, and I got given the option of whether I wanted to take some time off,” she explains. “But it was a nice distraction to have.”

With some distance from that painful decision, Mason has become more comfortable reflecting on her past.

“To be honest, it feels like a lot of time ago now. So much has happened since, and I haven’t actually spoken about it,” she says, before revealing to Stellar that it was a breakdown in trust that led her to call off the wedding after flowers had been ordered, menus set and invitations sent.

“It certainly was an emotional rollercoaster,” she admits.

“When someone hurts you like that, you experience all the emotions from sadness to shock to anger. But sometimes you just have to get through it. You’ve got no option, really … People would ask me, ‘Are you OK?’ And I’d say, ‘Not right now, but I will be.’”

As well as support from her friends, family and colleagues, Mason also sought professional help to get through.

Danika Mason and Liam Knight. Picture: Instagram

See the full shoot with Danika Mason inside the new issue of Stellar.

“I was a bit apprehensive, but it definitely did help,” she says, adding that she was brought up to understand “what we will and won’t accept, and how we will and won’t be treated.

“I’m a big believer in the idea everything happens for a reason as well,” she continues.

“So you should let life take you wherever it’s going to take you, whether it’s a bit turbulent at some point, knowing that no matter what, you will be OK in the end.

“That’s something that I always told myself. I look back at that time and I applaud myself, like, ‘Good on you for getting through it.’ Because you also don’t want to be cynical.

“It’s really helpful to be able to move on and leave it in the past.”

A month into Mason’s new presenting gig, the self-confessed morning person says that joining the Today team has brought her joy.

And rather than replacing Cullen, she argues that she’s simply taking on a new opportunity at the right time in a big year. Along with Today and her ongoing NRL commitments, Mason will also look at the lighter side of the league by co-hosting sports show Freddy And The Eighth alongside Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns.

“I feel great,” Mason says of where she is today.

“We’ve just had the absolute best time overseas with some work colleagues, who are like family to me.

“I pinch myself at the moment, to be looking at where I am and thinking this is what I’m doing. It’s such a nice and happy spot to be in.”

Danika can be seen reporting as part of NRL coverage on the Nine Network and 9Now.

The full shoot and interview with her is out tomorrow in Stellar, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

For more from Stellar and the podcast Something To Talk About, click here.

Originally published as ‘It was an emotional rollercoaster’: TV star reveals why she called off wedding