Karl Stefanovic responds to ex-wife's claims he and his family have 'abandoned' his kids.

Last week, Karl Stefanovic’s ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn sat down with Women’s Weekly, saying she felt ‘discarded and disposed of’ by her former partner after separating in October 2016.

“Last year, I declared that Karl really was dead to me, a man I no longer know, but the children still have their father,” the mother-of-three said.

“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.”

While Stefanovic previously expressed hesitance to publicly discuss matters surrounding his marriage breakdown, on Sunday, the 44-year-old insisted Thorburn’s claims were far from the truth.

“First and foremost, I’m a dad… and I’m not going anywhere. I love my kids,” Stefanovic told The Daily Telegraph‘s Confidential.

“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,” he said.

“It just means I want to protect them from scrutiny as much as I can. I’m their dad and I’m not going anywhere.”

In a statement released to The Fix on Wednesday, Stefanovic’s family said they were gravely disappointed in Thorburn after her interview.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Karl regularly co parents his children and has his loving family around them,” the statement read.

“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.”

Stefanovic is set to marry fiancé Jasmine Yarbrough at the end of the year.