MasterChef Australia's Jock Zonfrillo Kept his Cancer Treatment Hidden from Friends During Filming
MasterChef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo was found dead in his hotel room on Monday morning, according to Daily Mail, and it has been revealed that Zonfrillo was subject to multiple welfare checks by emergency services prior to his sudden death. Medical response units were called on "a number of occasions" to check up on the 46-year-old restaurateur and chef. The welfare checks were because of ongoing concerns about Zonfrillo's health before he was shockingly found dead by police at Zagame’s House Hotel at 2 am on Monday, May 1.
As revealed exclusively to Daily Mail, the famed Australian chef had been receiving treatment for bowel cancer since June 2021, a month after it was diagnosed through a colonoscopy. A source said at the time: "No one in his circle is aware of what he is going through. Neither colleagues or friends. He has not wanted anyone to know as he deals with this tough journey. He is coping poorly with chemo treatment, and the effects it is having." In the following months, Zonfrillo had been an out-patient at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre in Sydney and Epworth Oncology in Melbourne and was seeking treatment in Queensland, the source said.
It has been revealed that Zonfrillo had undergone chemotherapy while filming the second series of Celebrity MasterChef in 2021. Another source said that the restaurateur "had been avoiding hospital and was instead being attended by a doctor who was flown in to treat him." The source added, "He claimed that each time he was getting any medical treatment there was a barrage of nurses that kept coming into his room, and he didn't want to be impolite by asking to be left alone." The late Orana Foundation founder had reportedly been settling in Italy but had to return to Melbourne to undertake promotional work for the latest season of MasterChef from Monday morning.
A source has revealed that the late MasterChef celebrity judge usually kept his health problems hidden from most friends and colleagues and received treatment, including chemotherapy, when he wasn't filming the hit cooking show.
Jock Zonfrillo's wife, Lauren Zonfrillo had frantically called the police from Rome early on Monday morning, concerned that her husband "did not follow their usual daily schedule of telephone calls." The officers who attended Zagame's House at Carlton at about 2 am found the celebrity chef dead in his bed with no signs of anything suspicious or unusual. There was no drug paraphernalia located and no one else was suspected to be in the hotel room. The police then ruled it out as "death by natural causes."
However, an autopsy will now be conducted to determine the famed Australian chef’s "cause of death." Jock Zonfrillo is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children.
