Jock Zonfrillo’s wife made the desperate plea to police that led them to find the MasterChef judge dead after her husband missed a string of phone calls.
Lauren made the frantic call from Rome to Melbourne in the early hours of Monday after Zonfrillo missed multiple daily scheduled phone calls from her, the Daily Mail reported.
Officers found the star dead in his bed at boutique hotel Zagame’s House about 2am.
There was no drug paraphernalia and no signs of suspicious activity, with police forming the view that the 46-year-old died of natural causes, according to sources quoted by the media outlet.
Zonfrillo’s body has been released to his family and the precise cause of his death will be determined by the coroner.
Zagame’s House, which offers rooms for $650 a night, eerily backs onto the rental home Zonfrillo lived in with his family since 2020 before recently moving to Italy.
It is understood he was also in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook.
Lauren and their children Alfie and Isla returned to Australia this week.
Zonfrillo, who also has adult children Ava and Sophie, had returned to Australia ahead of the launch of MasterChef’s 15th season.
The series, which had been due to begin last Monday, will now premiere on Sunday with the full support of Zonfrillo’s family.
It is believed MasterChef co-host Andy Allen had a meeting with the show’s executives on Thursday to work out how to handle publicity for the program.
His wife Alex said that her husband had lost a “best mate”.
Zonfrillo had reportedly secretly been battling bowel cancer since 2021. It was a fight he even kept secrets from most of his family and friends.
He had previously been treated for the disease before going into remission in 2016.
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