Latest news with #Zonfrillo
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lauren Zonfrillo reveals heartbreaking reason why she decided to have late husband Jock buried
Lauren Zonfrillo has revealed the heartbreaking reason why she decided to have her late husband buried rather than cremated. The widow of MasterChef Australia star Jock Zonfrillo recently appeared on The Imperfects podcast and made the painful admission she and her children needed a place to visit Jock. 'Jock and I never talked about death, like, "Do you want to get buried or cremated?" she began. 'So, I decided. 'I know Jock would have said, "Don't make a fuss, just cremate me", but the kids and I needed a place. 'And the ritual of the burial was a very important part of them processing what happened. Lauren added she and her children found it cathartic to visit Jock's grave. 'We go and visit him, it's a really nice cemetery. We go out there for Jock's birthday, Father's Day, and have a picnic breakfast,' she said. 'We spend time with Jock, and it makes sense to the kids that they know he is there. 'Alfie always lies on Jock's stomach, like where he used to lie. It makes sense to them, they can visualise it is a place where Jock is resting.' The celebrity chef was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room about 2am on May 1, 2023 after police were called to conduct a welfare check on the 46-year-old. His grieving widow raced home to Australia from Italy with the couple's two young children, where she was faced with seeing his body in a Melbourne morgue. At the time of Zonfrillo's death, Lauren had been in Italy and reportedly became concerned when her husband failed to keep to their usual daily schedule of telephone calls. A senior Victoria Police source told Daily Mail Australia that officers who attended Zagame's House in Carlton found Zonfrillo dead in his bed and saw no obvious signs of anything suspicious or unusual. There was no drug paraphernalia located, no one else in his room and police at the scene formed the initial view Zonfrillo had died of natural causes. Lauren has never publicly discussed Zonfrillo's cause of death and a spokeswoman for Victoria's Coroners Court told Daily Mail Australia in February that the August 2024 findings of an investigation would not be published. It is unclear if Lauren will reveal what she knows of what happened the night her husband died in her upcoming book Till Death Do Us Part, an extract of which appears in the current edition of The Australian Women's Weekly. Lauren said she 'has an answer' to what killed her husband, but 'it doesn't make a difference' to her grieving process. There was widespread speculation about the cause of Zonfrillo's sudden death due to his well-publicised history of drug abuse and mental health struggles. He left behind Lauren and their two young children, five-year-old Alfie and three-year-old Isla, as well as daughters Ava and Sofia from previous marriages. A source said Zonfrillo kept his health problems from most friends and colleagues, receiving treatment including chemotherapy when MasterChef was not filming. A fortnight after Zonfrillo's death his wife led about 200 mourners who gathered for a funeral at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium at North Ryde on May 13, and he was later interred there. Among those who attended the service were celebrity chefs George Calombaris, Matt Moran, Colin Fassnidge, Manu Feildel and Shannon Bennett as well as Jock's co-stars Allen and Melissa Leong. Lauren was among the pallbearers and delivered a eulogy before Jock's friend and fellow Scotsman, Jimmy Barnes, sang Amazing Grace. Jock wrote in his 2021 memoir Last Shot about battling a heroin addiction from his teenage years working as a chef in Glasgow. Before his death, Jock had been preparing for the launch of MasterChef's 15th season, which was set to premiere the night his body was found. According to his book, Jock kept a raging heroin habit hidden from everyone before going back to the UK in 1997 when his visa ran out.
News.com.au
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Liz Hayes' rating fizzer after big move
Liz Hayes' interview with Jock Zonfrillo's widow for Seven's Spotlight turned out to be a ratings fizzer despite a heavy slate of network promos and widespread media hype. Hayes' 'guest' interview with Lauren Fried, the widow of the MasterChef judge, was out-rated by Nine's 60 Minutes in the same timeslot on Sunday night - this despite Seven getting a five minute jump on Nine with a 8.05pm kick-off on the night. Spotlight was watched by an audience of 418,000 (five city metro total people + BVOD) - 26,000 less than Nine's 60 Minutes which was viewed by an audience of 444,000. The results were buried by Seven in its Monday ratings release. It follows Seven's audacious play for the interview and with it the star reporter who interviewed celebrity chef Zonfrillo prior to his death for Spotlight's main rival, 60 Minutes. Hayes is believed to have been paid a freelance fee worth upwards of $20,000 for her efforts in procuring the interview with Fried, a marketing executive. Seven has denied paying Fried for her interview which coincides with the two-year anniversary of Zonfrillo's death and the launch of a book penned by his widow, with whom he shared two young children. Hayes secured the interview after quitting Nine in February following a brilliant 44-year career. Her original interview with the MasterChef star was shot prior to his death in April 2023. Executives at Nine, Hayes' then employer, decided against broadcasting the interview believing it would promote a program in direct competition to their current affairs flagship 60 Minutes, which had been bettered in the ratings by Ten's MasterChef. Zonfrillo, 46, died in mysterious circumstances at a Melbourne hotel on the evening of April 30, 2023 - the same night the fifteenth season of MasterChef premiered. His wife was abroad at the time with the couple's children. Fried decided not to reveal the finding of a coroner's report after a 16-month investigation concluded last year. Zonfrillo had a history of abusing drugs, including heroin. Spotlight was beaten on Sunday night by an episode of 60 Minutes featuring an investigation by Dimity Clancy into the death of 19-year-old naval recruit Audrey Griffin and a report by Adam Hegarty on AI relationships.
7NEWS
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
MasterChef star Jock Zonfrillo's wife addresses his cause of death in 7NEWS Spotlight interview
The wife of celebrity chef and MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo has opened up about his shock death, publicly answering questions about his cause of death for the first time. Zonfrillo, 46, was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room in May 2023. His sudden death shocked his fans and his family, with his wife Lauren Zonfrillo and their two children on the other side of the world in Italy when the discovery was made. Zonfrillo's cause of death has never been disclosed. It was revealed earlier this year that a coroner's investigation had been completed in August 2024 but that it was decided the findings would not be made public. In Victoria not all coronial findings are required to be published, and a coroner may determine that non-publication is in the public interest. Sources close to the family had previously said the popular chef had died of natural causes. Speaking to Liz Hayes in a 7NEWS Spotlight special on Sunday night, Lauren said she'd chosen to keep her husband's cause of death private following discussions with the coroner. Lauren said she wanted to give Jock, who had been further thrust into the public eye after joining the MasterChef Australia judging team in 2020, some semblance of privacy. 'We spoke to the coroner multiple times because the inquest took a while and it was just sort of agreed that for the privacy and safety of our family, because really the kids and I were the focus ... that it wouldn't be in the public's best interest or our best interest and that was determined well before the report was finalised,' she said. 'I respect that decision. That's what I wanted and was grateful for it because the way that I've looked at the last two years is that up until Jock's death, yes, he was a public figure. 'But, since we lost Jock, I'd been trying to reclaim some of his privacy and that gives us privacy, but also to give him some peace as much as I can and to us, he's Dad, Papa, husband, and he's not a public figure to us anymore.'
Metro
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
MasterChef star Jock Zonfrillo's widow reveals his heartbreaking journal entry
The widow of MasterChef star Jock Zonfrillo has revealed the details about his final journal entry before his shock death. The Scottish chef was best known as one of the judges on MasterChef Australia, which he joined in 2019 alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen. But in May 2023 it was announced that Zonfrillo had died aged 46 during the promo tour for the show. He was found dead in a hotel room in Melbourne, with his cause of death never being revealed. At the time his family released a statement that read: 'With completely shattered hearts and without knowing how we can possibly move through life without him, we are devastated to share that Jock passed away yesterday.' They added: 'So many words can describe him, so many stories can be told, but at this time we're too overwhelmed to put them into words.' Two years on his wife Lauren, whom he married in 2017 and shared two young children with, has given her first TV interview speaking about Zonfrillo's death. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video When Zonfrillo died, Lauren was in Italy with their children, where they'd relocated not long before. Speaking to Liz Hayes in a special edition of Seven News' Spotlight series, she revealed how her husband's final words were about 'how happy' he was to have created their young family – son Alfie and daughter Isla. In the interview, Lauren shared how she discovered Jock's journal following his death. 'Jock had journalled for a period of time,' she explained. 'He wrote in his journal how he's so happy that we were finding our feet, and he was excited about creating these little Aussie-Italian-Scottish children…and what Isla's accent was going to be like when she starts talking full sentences. 'He always liked to put the kids to bed at night, he did all the voices with the books and so he just wrote about missing those thing and how he looked forward to getting there (to Italy where the kids were).' She went on: 'He wrote… 'Lauren didn't see herself, but I think she's just doing so much, but she's so capable and I'm really proud that she can do those hard things as well', and that's meant a lot to me now.' Lauren explained how it 'meant a lot' to her reading about 'such a normal conversation. 'It was kind of this encouragement to say, you've got this Lauren, there's been many times where I've (felt like) I haven't got this,' she added. Lauren also spoke about the devastating lead-up to discovering her husband had died. After struggling to get in contact with him she asked hotel staff to conduct a welfare check. 'I was now hysterical,' she recalled. After police were called, Lauren was contacted and told a 'deceased male' had been found in her husband's room. Once arriving back in Australia and viewing her husband's body, Lauren said she begged him for answers to 'so many unanswered questions'. In tears while speaking about this moment, Lauren said she could smell his 'aftershave and hair product' and it looked like he was 'just sleeping'. 'He was still there. I really felt he was there. I told him that it will be okay, that I've got this. That I will make sure the kids live big lives. And that, no matter what, we would be a family,' she said. However, she also battled with feelings of being 'broken now' following the death of 'the person I love that much'. More Trending Although there was significant speculation about Zonfrillo's death – he had previously spoken publicly about past battles with drug addiction while some reports suggested he'd been diagnosed with bowel cancer – Lauren refused the proposition his 'demons caught up with him'. She didn't go into further detail about how he died but relayed how she'd been told by those who found him that it appeared he'd died peacefully in his bed. View More » Zonfrillo is also survived by his two adult daughters Ava and Sophia from his first two marriages. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Spend your May bank holiday weekend bingeing 'best Australian drama in a decade' MORE: Ant Middleton kicked off TV show months after selling home 'due to £1,200,000 debts' MORE: 'Watching this Hollywood actor play my love rat ex sent shivers down my spine'
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jock Zonfrillo's widow confronted in new TV interview as she speaks about MasterChef Australia star's death for the first time: 'People want to know'
Jock Zonfrillo 's widow Lauren will speak out about the MasterChef Australia star's death for the first time in a candid interview on 7News Spotlight. In a preview for the interview, which is set to air on Sunday, an emotional Lauren discusses the impact Jock's death has had on her and their young children, Alfie and Isla. 'His death made headlines around he world and for the first time Lauren Zonfrillo on life after Jock,' host Liz Hayes says. Lauren then recalled her heartbreak when learning about Jock's tragic death, telling Liz: 'Just wake up, open your eyes, give me something.' 'I told him it will be ok, I've got this,' she also says, before questioning: 'Did I love him enough, did I do enough?' Liz then asks Lauren several confronting questions about Jock's death. 'People want to know why he died and how he died,' she asks an emotional Lauren. Jock, who tragically passed away on April 30, 2023, was found unresponsive in a hotel in Carlton, near Melbourne's CBD. He left behind Lauren and their two young children, five-year-old Alfie and three-year-old Isla, as well as daughters Ava and Sofia from previous marriages. At the time of Zonfrillo's death, Lauren had been in Italy and reportedly became concerned when her husband failed to keep to their usual daily schedule of telephone calls. A senior Victoria Police source told Daily Mail Australia that officers who attended Zagame's House in Carlton found Zonfrillo dead in his bed and saw no obvious signs of anything suspicious or unusual. There was no drug paraphernalia located, no one else in his room and police at the scene formed the initial view Zonfrillo had died of natural causes. Lauren has never publicly discussed Zonfrillo's cause of death and a spokeswoman for Victoria's Coroners Court told Daily Mail Australia in February that the August 2024 findings of an investigation would not be published. In the months following Jock's death, Lauren took over his Instagram account, using it as a platform to continue his legacy while sharing her journey through grief and the challenges of solo parenting. A fortnight after Zonfrillo's death his wife led about 200 mourners who gathered for a funeral at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium at North Ryde on May 13. Among those who attended the service were celebrity chefs George Calombaris, Matt Moran, Colin Fassnidge, Manu Feildel and Shannon Bennett as well as Zonfrillo's co-stars Allen and Melissa Leong. Lauren delivered a eulogy before Zonfrillo's friend and fellow Scotsman, Jimmy Barnes, sang Amazing Grace with his daughter Mahalia. Before his death, Zonfrillo had been preparing for the launch of MasterChef's 15th season, which was set to premiere the night his body was found. He was also in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook prior to his death. Zonfrillo and his wife, who married in 2017, had put their four-bedroom Carlton terrace up for rent ahead of a potential permanent move to Italy, where his father was born.
