'Nothing could be further from the truth,' she said, in response to claims she 'hated' her co-star, who has now left the show.
'Ask anyone who knows us individually or as an on-air team, there was never any hate,' she went on to say.
'All year I kept reading comments that apparently I hated him but no-one ever asked me directly, and you know why? Because they didn't want the truth. It might've disrupted the tantalising narrative of Georgie and Karl.'
Rumours of supposed tension intensified after it was announced Stefanovic would be stepping away from the show he hosted for 14 years, to make room for Gardner’s new co-host, long-standing Nine presenter and journalist, Deborah Knight.
In the interview, Gardner admitted she found stepping into the position famously vacated by Lisa Wilkinson - who defected to the rival Ten network amidst a pay dispute - challenging.
'I took it on [the job] with enormous hope and confidence that we'd be a really formidable and appealing partnership, but there were two things I wasn’t prepared for: the intense and unrelenting interest in Karl’s personal life and the ongoing false narrative that Karl and I didn’t get along,' she told the magazine.
Stefanovic will continue to be seen on Nine this year, hosting This Time Next Year, which looks set to screen mid-year.
Gardner will continue to host Today with Knight, along with new presenters sports journalist Tony Jones and entertainment reporter Brooke Boney.
