Without a legacy media salary to fall back on, Karl Stefanovic could be facing a financial perfect storm. If there’s one consolation, it’s that he has weathered similar setbacks before.With his $2million Channel Nine contract axed, and his new Gold FM radio role canned just two weeks in, the former Today show host, 51, has lost two significant income streams within a matter of days.That would be enough to throw anyone’s financial future into doubt.The Karl Stefanovic Show – the podcast at the centre of the controversy – is unlikely to generate anything close to the income required to support his lifestyle.But it’s not the first time he’s faced major financial upheavals. His bank balance took a major hit after his 2016 split from first wife Cassandra Thorburn, following a 21-year marriage. The fallout ultimately became a PR headache for Nine and contributed to Karl’s removal from the Today show, before he returned a year later. The couple’s split was abrupt, fuelling intense media speculation. Within months, Karl had met his now-wife, Jasmine Yarbrough, who at 31 was 11 years his junior. At the time, Cassandra was 45 and Karl was 42. Karl’s bank balance took a major hit after his 2016 split from first wife Cassandra Thorburn, following their 21-year marriage and his sacking from Nine amid the fallout. (The former couple is pictured together)In doing so, Karl lost a significant portion of the female Today viewership.His former co-host Lisa Wilkinson revealed in her 2021 memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, that Today’s ratings took a major hit after Karl’s marriage ended.She described the entire Today show team being summoned to a meeting about Karl’s declining popularity with women after he went public with Jasmine. ‘Each of us was handed a detailed dossier laying it all out… it made for some very uncomfortable reading,’ Wilkinson wrote.Things reached fever pitch in December 2018 when Nine dropped Karl as host of Today while he was still on honeymoon with Jasmine in the US, following their lavish wedding in Mexico.He was reinstated on Today in early 2020, as the network tried to claw back viewers who rejected the on-air partnership of Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner.In the meantime, Cassandra went public with her own side of the split.She revealed Karl had left her shortly after she came home from a grocery shop to find his bags already packed.Join the discussionDoes Karl Stefanovic deserve sympathy after his downfall, or did his past choices catch up with him?What’s your view? Stefanovic met current wife Jasmine Yarbrough just months after splitting from Thorburn. (They’re pictured together)’She was completely devastated and had no inkling that something was happening. Cass was blindsided,’ a family source told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time. ‘It took her days to even tell the rest of her family because she had no idea what was going on or why it was happening.’Cassandra once had a flourishing career as an ABC journalist and was a line producer on Today in 2002.She set her ambitions aside to support Karl’s career opportunities – including his Los Angeles correspondent posting for Channel Nine – years before he landed the Today host role in 2005.Throughout his marriage, Karl praised Cassandra for giving up her own career to raise their kids and support him. ‘I’m forever thankful and tremendously appreciative of that,’ he told the Sunday Herald Sun in 2015.’Cass wanted to be at home, and wants to be there now, and we’re very lucky to be in a financial position where we can do that.’ Stefanovic and ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn sold their Cremorne home for more than $9millionAfter the break-up, Karl embraced the social scene, staying at friend James Packer’s multimillion-dollar Bondi apartment, while Cassandra raised their three children at home.Cassandra and the kids reportedly only discovered his new romance with Jasmine in February 2017, when paparazzi photos of the pair kissing on a superyacht made the front page of a Sunday tabloid.’At no point before it was released in the media did Karl tell Cassandra or the children he was in a relationship and that he wanted his girlfriend to meet them,’ a source told Fairfax Media at the time.After being blindsided, Cassandra went on to largely benefit in the divorce settlement, reportedly receiving 92 per cent of their combined $6.5million net asset pool. It was widely reported throughout 2017 and 2018 that Karl did not put up much of a fight when it came to splitting their assets in the divorce.The TV larrikin walked away with just $500,000 and his Mercedes-Benz, while Cassandra banked $6million and a rumoured $35,000 per month in support payments. The former couple also sold a family home in Lindfield for $3.8 million in 2016Cassandra retained two luxury Sydney properties in Lindfield and Cremorne, though the Lindfield family home was put on the market shortly after the split.It sold in under two weeks for $3.8million – well above the $2.3million they paid in 2010 after selling their first home in St Ives for $1.285million.Shortly after the split, Cassandra and the former couple’s children, Jackson, River and Willow – now all adults aged 27, 23 and 21 – moved into their Cremorne mansion, first purchased for $8million in mid-2016, months before the marriage breakdown. In 2019, Cassandra sold the three-level, five-bedroom harbourfront home for $9million – drawing a line under her marriage and moving on from her ties to Karl.A year earlier – and just months after Karl became engaged to Jasmine – Cassandra told The Australian Women’s Weekly that she and their three children had been ‘discarded’ by her ex-husband’s extended family.However, she made it clear she was not accusing Karl himself of being a neglectful father. Stefanovic and Jasmine were married just nine months after their engagement ‘Last year, I declared that Karl really was dead to me, a man I no longer know, but the children still have their father,’ Cassandra told the magazine.’The flip-side of that is I feel like we’re dead to his family and almost anyone from our old life. There has been practically no contact. ‘I feel like we’ve been discarded and disposed of, replaced by a whole new line-up of starters.’Cassandra’s remarks followed reports in April 2017 that Jackson, Willow and River had not attended the wedding of Karl’s brother Peter to co-host of Nine’s Today Extra, Sylvia Jeffreys. At the time, a family friend told The Sydney Morning Herald the children were ‘upset’ to have missed their uncle’s nuptials.After Cassandra’s interview appeared in the Women’s Weekly, a Stefanovic family spokesperson quickly issued a statement to Nine, refuting her claims.’We are disappointed Cass would claim such inflammatory suggestions that we have alienated Karl’s children from our family,’ the statement read.’Nothing could be further from the truth. Karl regularly co-parents his children and has his loving family around them.’We refuse to keep a running dialogue of the children… Family is often compromised when parents go through a painful divorce and we do our best to continue our love and support for the children.’At about the same time, Karl addressed his relationship with his children in a News Corp interview, stressing that he remained actively involved in their lives.’First and foremost, I’m a dad… and I’m not going anywhere,’ he said. ‘I love my kids. They know that. And that’s what matters.’I don’t want my silence, or the fact that my children aren’t visibly front and centre with me for everyone to see, to be misinterpreted as absence. That couldn’t be further from the truth.’The controversy and media backlash intensified when Karl became engaged to Jasmine in February 2018 after their whirlwind romance, and married the shoe designer that December.He splashed a reported $500,000 on the lavish four-day affair in Los Cabos, Mexico. They exchanged vows in the chapel at the One&Only Palmilla Resort in San José del Cabo, hosting celebrations across two luxury villas – one costing $11,600 per night, the other $15,000 per night.Soon after, the couple escaped to Aspen, Colorado, for their honeymoon – seeking reprieve from intense media scrutiny surrounding Karl’s split from Cassandra, his subsequent marriage to Jasmine, the Today show’s falling ratings, and another scandal that was causing endless drama: ‘Ubergate’. Karl and Jasmine are overseeing a major redevelopment on Sydney’s north shore, having bought their Castlecrag property for $3.2million in 2021 and securing approval for a $4.5million rebuild this yearIt was during their Aspen honeymoon that Nine decided to axe Karl from Today – delivering the news while he was still overseas. He remained with the network only as host of This Time Next Year.Upon returning to Australia with his new wife, Karl was clearly frustrated – he was filmed confronting a photographer at Gold Coast Airport on Christmas Day.Footage surfaced of the incident, with Karl raging: ‘Take your f***ing camera and get out that f***ing door, it’s f***ing Christmas.’Why are you shaking? Have you got some disease? Are you sick in the head? [Have] you got a s*** job? It’s Christmas Day. Go home!’In 2020, Today welcomed Karl back in a bid to revive flagging ratings – though rival Seven’s Sunrise continued its lead.Fast-forward to 2026 and Karl has been dumped from Nine for good, as well as from his new ARN radio show The Long Weekend, which he co-hosted with Eddie McGuire. He lasted just two episodes before ARN severed ties over the backlash from his controversial podcast interview with British far-right figure Tommy Robinson. Stefanovic has a lavish holiday home in Noosa, which he rents out when he’s not staying thereAs Cassandra focuses on treatment for a rare breast cancer away from the spotlight, Karl has once again found himself at the centre of unwanted headlines – this time with Jasmine, who is reportedly struggling after her husband lost both high-profile jobs in just one week.Karl broke down in tears last Wednesday while discussing Jasmine during his latest podcast episode with controversial British journalist Piers Morgan.Sitting aboard a luxury yacht in Cannes, France, Morgan asked how Karl was coping with the fallout from his high-profile departure from Today, which came following backlash over his interview with British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.’Just my wife…’ he began, fighting back tears. ‘She puts up with a lot. Her finding out this stuff and having to deal with me, because I’m a lot, and I’m in the public a lot.’I really do work hard and I’m away a bit, and she knows what I’m trying to do with this podcast. So I’m doing this, and some radio, and I’m doing it for the family, but she’s on her own a lot. And for me to hear her upset, it was the hardest thing.’Jasmine was really upset at first and she was like, ‘I don’t understand how you can do an interview and get sacked as a result of it.”To make matters worse, Karl’s loss of income comes in the middle of a multimillion-dollar rebuild of his Castlecrag home. Karl recently revealed his daughter Willow has been enjoying a rather lavish lifestyle while living in LondonKarl and Jasmine are overseeing a major redevelopment on Sydney’s north shore, having bought their Castlecrag property for $3.2million in 2021 and securing approval for a $4.5million rebuild this year.The couple demolished the original 1960s brick house to make way for a striking, contemporary home they plan to share with their six-year-old daughter, Harper.The new residence sits much further back on the block – where a spa and gazebo once stood – maximising the home’s footprint at the expense of backyard space.Fresh photos taken earlier this month reveal bold modern features: an expansive upper-level entertaining terrace, slanted architectural windows, crisp geometric concrete lines, and a distinctive circular roof detail.While many may wonder if Karl will put a halt to the development now that he’s lost his job, his builder, Peter Oreb of Enter Building Group, insists it’s business as usual. When the Daily Mail asked if construction was still going ahead on the property in the wake of Karl’s sacking, Oreb simply asked: ‘Why wouldn’t it be?’Karl also has a holiday home at Sunshine Beach near Noosa that he has failed to offload in recent years. Villa Isabelle, which Karl and Jasmine purchased for $3.6 million in January 2020, underwent an estimated $1million renovation and was designed by Jasmine’s sister Jade Yarbrough. Willow, 21, is studying at the London School of Fashion However, despite splashing so much cash to spruce the place up, the couple struggled to find a buyer for the property when they put it to auction in March 2022.They later listed the home for a private treaty sale for which they asked for $7.5million before they had to pull it from the market yet again.Now, the lavish house sits as a holiday rental, with Karl leasing it out for $2,000 to $3,700 per night when he and Jasmine aren’t staying there. Real estate isn’t the only demand on Karl’s finances.His daughter Willow, 21, has been enjoying a lavish lifestyle while studying at the London College of Fashion – at a cost of around $60,000 a year in international student fees, all funded by her father.Willow has embraced her jet-set existence, sharing photos from luxury hotels, designer stores, and glamorous nights out with her wealthy friends. Her social media offers followers a window into her privileged world, with posts from shopping sprees, fine dining, university life, and trips to destinations like Cannes, Monaco, Dubai, Uruguay, and Argentina.Karl recently joked on his Gold FM show, The Long Weekend, that Willow’s university was ‘the really expensive one that Dad has to pay for’. He added that he would soon be reuniting with her on a work trip to London.It was during that London trip that Karl conducted the interview with Robinson – a decision that ultimately ended his mainstream television career.