The emotional moment Brooke Boney breaks down in tears on the Today Show over the Bondi tragedy

An emotional Brooke Boney has broken down in tears as she read the news about the Westfield Bondi Junction massacre on Channel Nine’s Today Show.

Five women and a man were killed while 12 others – including a baby – were seriously injured before Queensland man Joel Cauchi, 40, was shot dead by police during the horrific rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon.

A number of the survivors were released from hospital overnight, while others remained under observation.

Boney struggled to keep her composure as she read the news shortly after 8 a.m. Monday.

Hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo took over reading the bulletin as an emotional Boney broke down in tears.

Stefanovic then addressed Boney’s absence.

“Sorry guys, this story is just so heavy and we’re not the story,” Stefanovic told viewers.

‘Neither would we ever want to be.

‘But dealing with this story and the magnitude of it and how terrible it is for mothers and babies – it’s a lot. So sorry for some of us, you know, who get mad at times.

“It’s in some of our communities,” he said.

Boney returned to the air soon after.

“I think you know it’s really hard too, knowing that there were so many women that were affected,” she explained.

‘You see people you love and friends of friends and it’s really hard.’

Stefanovic added: ‘Their lives have changed. And they will never be the same.

‘And precisely the size of that grief, I think most of us cannot and do not want to imagine.

‘But these families have it. They will make a living from it. Their lives will be forever changed by it. So it’s so heavy.

Co-host Sarah Abo also broke down when she spoke about the women affected.

‘She was planning her wedding and a 25-year-old was planning her wedding. She bought her wedding dress the other day.

‘And so now, now she can’t even get married. As if you have a mother, there would only be mother. That’s all she wanted to be,’ Abo explained.

‘A first-time mother aged 38 and had to throw her baby into the arms of strangers to be saved.’

Stefanovic ended the discussion: ‘Folks, bear with us if you can, we’ll get back on track.’