The widow of the late MasterChef star Jock Zonfrillo has taken to Instagram to share an emotional post on what would have been his 47th birthday. Lauren Fried shared a carousel of poignant images to the star’s profile, along with a message for her husband. She captioned her post, “Happy birthday my love. Some moments from your birthdays together, never more special than today. Today the kids and I are together; spending time with you, watering your grass, singing you songs, still not grasping what forever is like without you in it. You eclipsed our family with your chaos and fun, and we are trying to find our new true north. I’m grateful that we are finding moments of joy in our smaller family, knowing that you are forever my husband, forever their Dad/Papa, forever a part of all of us.”
Jock Zonfrillo’s wife reacts as MasterChef stars fight back tears at Logies. Zonfrillo died, aged 46, on May 1, just hours before the latest season of MasterChef was due to premiere. With Fried’s permission, it was decided that the full season would go to air, so viewers and fans could have one last, long chance to watch Zonfrillo doing what he loved.
Fans reacted to Fried’s latest post with a flood of love. “Happy Birthday Jock, gone but not forgotten,” one moved follower wrote. “I may not have met you but what an impression you made, not only on me but all you have touched. I loved your enthusiasm, your caring nature and your love and passion in cooking. Thanks for sharing the beautiful memories with us, it really means a lot. I hope you and the kids are doing OK. Loz please know you are all on our minds and in our hearts.” Another added: “Thank you for sharing some of your beautiful and treasured memories. My heart goes out to you all.”
Zonfrillo was found dead in a hotel room in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton after police were called to perform a welfare check. Officers went to the Lygon Street address after Zonfrillo failed to answer calls from his wife, who was in Italy with their two young children. The news of his death was confirmed in a statement issued by his family, who called him “our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend”.
As Fried prepared for the final episode of MasterChef Australia to air in July, she shared her conflicting feelings with fans on social media. “As a family we are going to try and watch it. We haven’t been able to watch this season just yet,” she explained. “We felt that tonight was an important one to watch. We used to really enjoy watching the finale together. It was something Jock was really proud of. It was a job he really loved doing and so we’ve decided we’re going to honor that and we’re going to keep doing what we would normally do. I’ve got so many messages off people today… and they all seemed to be really sad,” she continued, before breaking down. “I just wanted to get on here and say yes it is sad. But this is something he loved doing and this is not the end of the line for Jock at all. We have so many wonderful recipes of Jock having fun, of travel, of family stuff that I would love to share with everyone and it’s very much a way I can find meaning through all of this.”
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