Today show star Karl Stefanovic didn’t chicken out of an opportunity to confront a major personal fear on the Today show on Tuesday.

The veteran TV presenter, 50, was treated to a one-on-one with Australia’s Happiest Pet, Lemon Chicken.

The Channel Nine star and his co-host, Sarah Abo, were joined in the studio by a woman named Kris Stanley and her bird Lemon Chicken, which had just been crowned ‘Australia’s happiest pet’.

Lemon Chicken, likely named after her distinct yellow feathers, is a therapy animal which loves roaming around the garden and even getting its nails painted.

Ironically, close encounters with small animals is the opposite of therapy for Stefanovic, who in 2017 admitted that he was attacked by a sausage dog as a child.

Lemon Chicken has been dedicated her very own billboard in in Chatswood, in Sydney‘s Lower North Shore after winning the online competition.

‘There are a lot of great Chinese restaurants (in that suburb) and lemon chicken is on the menu … I mean, she’s lucky to be alive,’ Stefanovic started the segment on Tuesday.

‘How do we know a chicken is happy?’ he asked. ‘Because it’s not on a dinner plate?’

Today show star Karl Stefanovic didn’t chicken out of an opportunity to confront a major personal fear on the Today show on Tuesday – a chicken

Things were going smoothly until Lemon Chicken began to walk towards Stefanovic on the couch, as if sensing his fear.

His co-host Abo suggested that he try to hold Lemon Chicken to overcome his fear.

Abo and Krissy tried to coax Stefanovic into a sweet moment, but he freaked out as the chicken was placed in his lap and started flapping wildly.

He begrudgingly held onto the bird for a few a seconds, before promptly dropping her on the floor.

‘Oh my god you’ve dropped my baby!’ Krissy yelled as she slap him on the shoulder.

‘I don’t like them,’ Stefanovic said to which the owner replied, ‘well she doesn’t like you’.

‘I’ve had therapy for years! I’ve got PTS-chicken.’

Things were going smoothly until Lemon Chicken began to walk towards Stefanovic on the couch, as if sensing his fear

Abo and Krissy tried to coax Stefanovic into a sweet moment, but he freaked out as the chicken was placed in his lap and started flapping wildly

Stefanovic tried to patch things up with Lemon Chicken and agreed to let Krissy put the bird on his shoulder, which he failed to do without pulling a disgusted face.

‘How long since you’ve had a chick on your shoulder’ she asked.

‘Just last night actually,’ Stefanovic joked.

This isn’t the first time the TV host’s colleagues have confronted his childhood traumas live on-air.

In 2017,  Stefanovic was left ‘sweating’ when forced to confront a tiny dachshund puppy called ‘Frankfurt’ during a segment on pet photography.

Shrinking away from the cute animal as co-host Lisa Wilkinson, 57, held it in her hands, he explained:  ‘I was savaged by a dachshund, or sausage dog as we used to call them, in Queensland when I was five’.

‘I never got over it or got through it. In fact I’m sweating now, I’m in fear that this dog will savage my calf muscle’.

Before the segment began, the TV host made a series of anxious expressions and quipped, ‘Let’s confront my biggest fear’.

When the camera turned back to Stefanovic, his co-host Lisa was holding onto the dachshund.

Stefanovic dramatically shrank away to the very edge of of his seat to hide from the dog and appeared to mime wanting to vomit several times.

When the canine was lifted towards him Karl cried, ‘Get it away from me Lisa!’

Also known as wiener dogs, Stefanovic reveled that his dislike of dachshunds has been raised before and that dachshund owners had ‘tried to get him to like’ the breed, to no avail.

The host made one more attempt to pet the puppy, briefly reaching out his hand before making a disgusted expression and giving up.