A video released by Seven today shows Hayes asking Lauren directly if she’s willing to share the information publicly.
“People want to know why he died, and how he died,” Hayes tells her.
Elsewhere in the video, Lauren appears to detail her thought processes when she saw her husband’s body for the first time after his death.
“Jock, just wake up. Just wake up, open your eyes, give me something, anything,” she says.
“I told him it would be okay … like, ‘I’ve got this’.”
Lauren also appears to speak regarding her own feelings of guilt after her husband’s death, telling Hayes that she’d asked herself: “Could I have been a better wife? Did I love him enough? Did I do enough?”
Zonfrillo’s body was discovered at Zagame’s House hotel on Lygon Street, near Melbourne’s CBD, in the early hours of May 1, 2023.
Police had been called to the hotel to conduct a welfare check on the father of four, just one day before the latest season of MasterChef was due to premiere.
Zonfrillo is survived by Lauren and their two young children — Alfie and Isla — who were on holiday in Rome at the time of his death. It’s understood Lauren was the one who made the frantic call to police to check on him after becoming concerned when he stopped answering her calls.
A spokesman for Victoria’s Coroners Court told news.com.au in February the investigation into Zonfrillo’s death was privately finalised in late August last year.
“At the close of the investigation, the coroner determined that the finding would not be published,” the spokesman said.
Not all coronial findings are required to be published.
This new interview comes as Lauren prepares to release a new book about grief following the trauma of losing her husband.
Till Death Do Us Part, slated for a May release, is designed to help others find comfort through their own experience of pain and suffering.
Lauren’s Spotlight interview marks former 60 Minutes correspondent Hayes’ first project since joining Seven as a guest correspondent for the programme.
– News.com.au
