Jock Zonfrillo death: ‘Disgusting and fake rumour’ spreading about Masterchef star’s demise

Anti-vaccine trolls have been branded “opportunistic scum” after hijacking the tragic death of Jock Zonfrillo to falsely claim he had died from the Covid-19 jab.

Within hours of the Masterchef host’s tragic death in Melbourne on May 1, conspiracy theorists began claiming that the vaccine had killed the celebrity chef.

The world-renowned chef died of natural causes at the age of 46, with no suspicious circumstances, after secretly battling colon cancer for years.

He had also battled drug addiction in his youth and later suffered from mental health issues and anxiety.

But anti-vaxxers falsely claimed that the sudden death – on the day of the launch of the new season of MasterChef – must be related to the Scottish-born chef being fully vaccinated against Covid.

“Pretty sure they could have stopped this by saying he wasn’t stabbed to death, but probably they would because they won’t,” one anti-vaxxer tweeted.

“Being in denial doesn’t help anyone, the death shot is just that”

Another posted, “He didn’t end his life like the old media tried to portray, and the rest of this headline says he may have been battling cancer. Power.

“He was fully vaccinated and died suddenly. These are indisputable facts. Rest in peace.’

One added: ‘We don’t say HOW he died in our news reports, so we’re going to pile it on with guesswork – that is, probably 12,000 deaths from excess mortality.

“MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo SUDDENLY DIE like any Healthy Young Person right?”

But the sick claims have been dismissed by fans of the show, saying those closest to the chief are outraged by the “disgusting and false rumor.”

“The rotten stoves, of course [conspiracy theorists] have already come out saying it was the covid vaccine that killed Jock Zonfrillo,” one posted.

“It’s really opportunistic scum. RIP Jock.’

Another added, “WTAF is wrong about RWNJs speculating what caused Jock Zonfrillo to die. Blaming Covid vax. And if it was suicide, because of lockdowns.

Not everything is a conspiracy. Let the family mourn.’

Another said the twisted theory had enraged the chief’s friends and family.

‘Many of his friends are outraged that educated people doing their own research even suggest it was caused by the injection of Covid’s mRNA gene,” one said.

Police were called to Zonfrillo’s Carlton hotel Zagame’s House on Lygon Street in the early hours of May 1 for a welfare check over concerns about the star.

Well-placed sources have told Daily Mail Australia that Zonfrillo’s wife, Lauren, had raised the alarm from Italy after being unable to get hold of him.

The chef had been in Rome with his family to start a new life in Europe and had flown back to Australia alone for Masterchef’s new season debut, themed around Secrets and Surprises.

Police on the scene found Zonfrillo dead in his bed with no signs of anything suspicious or unusual.

No drug paraphernalia had been found, no one else in the room and police believe the father of four, including two adult children from his previous marriages, died of natural causes.

Daily Mail Australia previously revealed that Zonfrillo was diagnosed with bowel cancer around May 2021, after an earlier battle in 2016 went into remission.

It is not suggested that the cancer killed Zonfrillo, only that he had told friends that the recurrence was discovered after a routine colonoscopy.

A close friend and former neighbor of Zonfrillo told Daily Mail Australia that the chef would sometimes open up to him about his ‘demons’ over a glass of whisky.

Stuart Ayer said he and his wife had developed a close relationship with the TV star’s family over the three years they were neighbors in Carlton.

Speaking of Zonfrillo’s relationship with his wife, Mr Ayer said ‘they were a really close couple’.

“The kids were the light of his life,” he said. “They’re wonderful kids and it’s such a tragedy.”

Daily Mail Australia has been told Zonfrillo was being treated for bowel cancer from at least June 2021, a month after being discovered on a colonoscopy.

A source said at the time: “No one in his circle knows what he is going through. Neither colleagues nor friends.’

“He doesn’t want anyone to know as he goes through this arduous journey. He doesn’t deal well with chemotherapy and its effects.’

In the months that followed, Zonfrillo was an outpatient at Kinghorn Cancer Center in Sydney and Epworth Oncology in Melbourne, as well as receiving treatment in Queensland, the source said.

Zonfrillo underwent chemotherapy while filming his second series of Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.

Daily Mail Australia, which has seen evidence of Zonfrillo discussing the diagnosis with a close friend, contacted the chef and his relatives in August 2021 but received no response.

Another source said Zonfrillo had avoided the hospital and was instead attended by a doctor flown in to treat him.

“He claimed that every time he received medical treatment, a barrage of nurses would come into his room, and he didn’t mean to be rude by asking to be left alone,” the source said.

A source said Zonfrillo hid his health problems from most friends and colleagues, who usually received treatment, including chemotherapy, when the popular cooking show was not taped.

In his 2021 memoir Last Shot, he did not mention suffering from cancer, but did discuss his years of heroin addiction as a young man in Glasgow.

An autopsy will now be performed to determine the celebrity chef’s cause of death.

Masterchef finally launched the new season on Sunday night after being delayed for six days by the tragedy.