Cassandra Thorburn (born 16 March 1971) is an Australian

children's author Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

.About us
Cass and Cara Books website. Accessed 13 December 2018. In 2018, Thorburn published a children's book that she and her friend Cara Campbell co-authored called ''Leo Lion's Big Bed!''. Thorburn lists Australian children's author

Mem Fox Merrion Frances "Mem" Fox, AM (born Merrion Frances Partridge; 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox has been semi-retired since 1996, but she still gives seminars and l ...

as an inspiration, who was one of Thorburn's

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

s at university. As a journalist and television producer, Thorburn worked in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Until their divorce in 2016, Thorburn had been married to Australian television presenter

Karl Stefanovic Karl Stefanovic ( sr-Cyrl, Карл Стефановић; born 12 August 1974), also spelt Karl Stefanović, is an Australian television presenter and journalist for the Nine Network. Stefanovic is currently a co-host of the Nine Network's ...

for 21 years, whom she had first met in 1995 while they were both working as journalists in

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

. Together, they have three children. Thorburn and Stefanovic's divorce, and Stefanovic's new relationship with, and subsequent marriage to, Jasmine Yarbrough attracted widespread coverage in the Australian

tabloid media Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalism, sensationalist journalism (usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even Fake news, blatantly false), which takes its name from the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid ne ...

. Thorburn has been critical of the media coverage of her divorce from Stefanovic, and accused a

paparazzi Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...

photographer of following her to Hamilton Island, and following her mother in

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area had ...

. She also accused tabloid magazine ''

New Idea ''New Idea'' is a long-running Australian weekly magazine aimed at women that is published by Are Media. History The magazine was first published in 1902 by Fitchett Bros. The founder was Thomas Shaw Fitchett. It was subtitled A Women's Home Jou ...

'' of publishing a fake interview, which Thorburn said never occurred. Thorburn's father was regional Victorian media personality and

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Max Thorburn, who died at the age of 72 on 18 October 2018.Whiting, Melanie (27 October 2018
Max Thorburn gets fond farewell
''

Sunraysia Daily The ''Sunraysia Daily'' is a local newspaper in the north-western Sunraysia region of Victoria, Australia, it is published on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. From its first publication in 1920 until 14 September 2007, it was published ...

''. Retrieved 13 December 2018. Thorburn was one of the celebrities competing on

Network 10 Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

reality show ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' in 2019 where she was partnered up with Marco De Angelis. She was third to be eliminated from the competition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorburn, Cassandra Australian women children's writers Australian children's writers 1971 births Australian journalists Living people