{"id":597509,"date":"2026-04-10T08:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597509\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:28:13","slug":"inner-demons-come-out-to-play-karl-stefanovics-ex-wife-cassandra-thorburn-reflects-on-solo-cancer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/597509\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Inner demons come out to play’: Karl Stefanovic’s ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn reflects on ‘solo’ cancer journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cassandra Thorburn has opened up on her “solo” health battle after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ex-wife of Karl Stefanovic revealed the triple-negative occult breast cancer diagnosis in February this year, taking to Instagram to share the heartbreaking news while debuting her shaved head.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the 55-year-old has shared an update with her followers, assuring them that she is taking her cancer battle one step at a time.<\/p>\n

“A one foot in front of the other kind of day walking to chemo treatment today,” she wrote alongside a selfie on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“Sending everyone on the chemo journey, especially those of you on your own, a virtual hug.”<\/p>\n

“I am with you in the dark of the night when the house is quiet and your thoughts are loud,” she wrote, before adding: “Giving meditation a shot tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

Social media users flooded the post with support for Thorburn, with many questioning why she was facing the health battle alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

“You are very brave. I’m sorry you’re alone. Is there none of your children or friends or relatives that could take turns being with you? That’s very scary, I would be a mess!” one person wrote below the post.<\/p>\n

Responding to the concerned comment, Thorburn penned: “I have my children and my mum is visiting soon. But you cannot burden your children with many of your fears, for they are the very reason you have them.<\/p>\n

She went on: “Cancer just feels like a solo journey unless you have people close to you who have had cancer themselves I suspect.<\/p>\n

“And often it is lying alone at night that the inner demons come out to play. Hence the \u2018solo\u2019 journey or a single person,” the journalist added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, it was reported that Thorburn’s daughter, Willow Stefanovic, dropped everything after learning of her mum’s illness, flying home from the UK to be by her side.<\/p>\n

She marked her milestone 21st birthday with a low-key celebration in Australia alongside her close friends and family after her previous plans to celebrate overseas were derailed by her mother’s diagnosis.<\/p>\n

“Cass and Willow were actually planning a driving holiday around the UK when Cass learned of her cancer diagnosis,” an insider told Woman’s Day.<\/p>\n

“With the help of both Karl and Cass, Willow made the decision that instead she would fly home and spend quality time with her mum.<\/p>\n

\"Kanye<\/p>\n

“With the current conflict in the Middle East it was touch-and-go there for a while if she could even get a flight, but Karl apparently stepped in and made it all happen,” the insider added.<\/p>\n

According to the publication, Willow and her brothers Jackson, 26, and River, 19, are united in “rallying around their mum” during her cancer treatment.<\/p>\n

Triple-negative occult breast cancer is a rare and aggressive form of cancer where no tumour can be found in the breast. Instead, cancer cells that originated in the breast are discovered, usually, in the lymph nodes in the armpit.<\/p>\n

It is often treated with chemotherapy as\u00a0hormone or HER2-targeted therapies do not work against it.<\/p>\n

Thorburn was married to Stefanovic for 21 years before parting ways in 2016. The couple share three kids together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cassandra Thorburn has opened up on her “solo” health battle after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,230866,63,32549,252846,447,134,12304],"class_list":{"0":"post-597509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-aussie-social-media","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cancer-battle","12":"tag-cassandra-thorburn","13":"tag-celebrities","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-karl-stefanovic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}