Karl's estranged father speaks out

Karl Stefanovic's father Alex says his famous son's relationship with wife Cassandra Thorburn was on the rocks years before they split last year.

Speaking to New Idea magazine, 70-year-old Alex, who has a difficult relationship with Karl and his other two sons, says Karl considered leaving Cassandra back in the early 2000s, before changing his mind.

"From what I know, it was a strained marriage and had been for a long time," Alex tells the publication.

"Karl came to see me in the early 2000s and said: 'Marriage is too hard, it's all over.' He was going to move in with me, but he returned and they reconciled," he adds.

Alex has barely seen his children since he split from their mother Jenny 25 years ago.

And the contact between Alex and Karl has been minimal, especially over the past decade, with Alex claiming the Karl is ashamed of his dad's lifestyle.

"In 1992, I was living on $40 a week, I lived in s*** houses, and... Karl hated it," he says, adding he believes his son is still "embarrassed about me because I'm fat, I'm bald and I'm poor".

Karl rarely speaks about his father, but in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald in 2011, he opened up about the financial pressures his family faced during his childhood.

'Dad used to sneak us into the drive-in in the back of the Torana GTR so we didn't have to pay for it,' he told the publication about his father sneaking the kids into the cinemas as he couldn't afford to pay for all of them.

Meanwhile Karl split from his wife of 21 years, Cassandra Thorburn, in September last year.

RELATED: Karl Stefanovic's Logies booze ban

He and Cassandra share three children Jackson, 17, Ava, 11 and River, 10.

The Gold Logie winner has been dating model Jasmine Yarbrough since December.

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