Lauren Zonfrillo has revealed that her late MasterChef Australia star husband Jock would not have wanted her to move on and find a new partner.

The grieving widow told 7NEWS Spotlight’s Liz Hayes on Sunday that Jock Zonfrillo, who died in 2023, would have advised her to stay single.

‘Jock is not the person who would want to say to me, on his death bed, “I just want you to be happy. I want you to be happy”‘ the 44-year-old revealed.

‘Jock would never say that. So I laugh at the thought, because he would say, “I want you to be alone and a spinster and mine for the rest of your life.”

‘No one else. So I laugh at the thought of that now’.

Lauren said that she hopes to find love again one day, but for now, she can’t imagine doing so.

Lauren Zonfrillo has revealed that her late MasterChef Australia star husband Jock would not have wanted her to move on and find a new partner. Both pictured

‘I can’t. I still think I am married Jock. I think I’ve got to accept that he’s not coming home, to actually accept that I don’t have a husband anymore’ she said.

‘I do want a big life, and I still believe I can. I think part of that is love. That has been a really wonderful part of my life the past ten years.

‘It’s likely. I hope so. But I can’t imagine it.’

Jock was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room about 2am on May 1, 2023 after police were called to conduct a welfare check on the 46-year-old.

When asked to disclose Jock’s cause of death, which has never been revealed, Lauren remained protective of her husband.

‘A lot of people want to know the answer to that, I’m really aware of that. I’ve had a lot of experiences with people coming up to me, all strangers, and asking how Jock died, and it’s very unsettling’ she said.

‘Jock was very open in what he was willing to talk about. And I now don’t want to make those decisions, because I don’t know what he does and doesn’t want to talk about.’

Lauren said she ‘has an answer’ to what killed her husband, but ‘it doesn’t make a difference’ to her grieving process.

The grieving widow told 7NEWS Spotlight’s Liz Hayes on Sunday that Jock Zonfrillo, who died in 2023, would have advised her to stay single

‘Jock is not the person who would want to say to me, on his death bed, “I just want you to be happy”‘ the 44-year-old revealed

There was widespread speculation about the cause of Zonfrillo’s sudden death due to his well-publicised history of drug abuse and mental health struggles.

He left behind Lauren and their two young children, five-year-old Alfie and three-year-old Isla, as well as daughters Ava and Sofia from previous marriages.

At the time of Zonfrillo’s death, Lauren had been in Italy and reportedly became concerned when her husband failed to keep to their usual daily schedule of telephone calls.

A senior Victoria Police source told Daily Mail Australia that officers who attended Zagame’s House in Carlton found Zonfrillo dead in his bed and saw no obvious signs of anything suspicious or unusual.

There was no drug paraphernalia located, no one else in his room and police at the scene formed the initial view Zonfrillo had died of natural causes.

Lauren has never publicly discussed Zonfrillo’s cause of death and a spokeswoman for Victoria’s Coroners Court told Daily Mail Australia in February that the August 2024 findings of an investigation would not be published.

It is unclear if Lauren will reveal what she knows of what happened the night her husband died in her upcoming book Till Death Do Us Part, an extract of which appears in the current edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Before his death, Zonfrillo had been preparing for the launch of MasterChef’s 15th season, which was set to premiere the night his body was found.

‘Jock would never say that. So I laugh at the thought, because he would say, “I want you to be alone and a spinster and mine for the rest of your life”‘ she said

He was also in the early stages of planning a new restaurant and had started working on a cookbook prior to his death.

Zonfrillo and his wife had put their four-bedroom Carlton terrace up for rent ahead of a potential permanent move to Italy, where his father was born.

Daily Mail Australia previously revealed Zonfrillo had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in mid 2021, after recovering from an earlier bout with the disease.

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

A source said Zonfrillo kept his health problems from most friends and colleagues, receiving treatment including chemotherapy when MasterChef was not filming.

A fortnight after Zonfrillo’s death his wife led about 200 mourners who gathered for a funeral at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium at North Ryde on May 13.

Among those who attended the service were celebrity chefs George Calombaris, Matt Moran, Colin Fassnidge, Manu Feildel and Shannon Bennett as well as Zonfrillo’s co-stars Allen and Melissa Leong.

Lauren was among the pallbearers and delivered a eulogy before Zonfrillo’s friend and fellow Scotsman, Jimmy Barnes, sang Amazing Grace with his daughter Mahalia.

Jock left behind Lauren and their two young children, five-year-old Alfie and three-year-old Isla (both pictured), as well as daughters Ava and Sofia from previous marriages

Zonfrillo wrote in his 2021 memoir Last Shot about battling a heroin addiction from his teenage years working as a chef in Glasgow.

After moving to north-west England he sold cocaine and other drugs to supplement his wages, was eventually sacked and at 17 made his way to London.

Zonfrillo wrote that he turned up at Marco Pierre White’s renowned restaurant at the Hyde Park Hotel in 1994 and the famed chef became a mentor who would shape his life.

He moved to Australia aged 20 in 1996 and got a job at Forty One restaurant in Sydney where he was using cocaine, pills, LSD and cannabis.

According to his book, Zonfrillo kept a raging heroin habit hidden from everyone before going back to the UK in 1997 when his visa ran out.

He wrote of taking his last hit of heroin in the toilets at Heathrow airport before returning to Australia in early 2000.

Zonfrillo opened his own restaurants, Orana and Bistro Blackwood, in Adelaide in 2013. He added a third, Nonna Mallozzi, in 2018.

The latter lasted six months, Bistro Blackwood closed in late 2019 and Orana in March 2020.

Zonfrillo joined the MasterChef Australia judging panel in 2020 with food critic Leong and restaurateur Allen after original judges Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston left.

Till Death Do Us Part, published by Penguin Books Australia, will be released on May 6.