The daughter of a Japanese mother and a fifth-generation Australian father descended from transported Polish convict Joseph Potaski, Stynes has a reputation for sailing close to the wind. Many viewers believed she finally tacked too close.
Roberts-Smith is a poster boy for the military, serving two tours in East Timor before joining the SAS and twice winning gallantry awards in Afghanistan.
The first was a Medal for Gallantry, the military's third-highest award for courage under fire, won as a sniper in 2006 when he and another soldier fought off a group of insurgent militia attacking their observation post.
In June 2010, just months after his daughters were born, Roberts-Smith was second in command of a patrol that came under heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire after being landed by helicopter in a raid to capture a senior Taleban commander.
With two soldiers wounded and others pinned down, Roberts-Smith exposed his position to draw fire from three machine guns - allowing the patrol commander to silence one with a grenade - before storming the other two alone and later over-running other positions. He was awarded the VC.
The Circle's jibes infuriated viewers, including war veterans.
Frances Butcher, the great niece of World War I Military Cross winner Captain George Milne, rang the Age to complain at comments she said were "disgusting, bird-brained, and an insult to the [Defence Force]".
"I advocate that all involved in the shameless performance be made to give a proper apology, as well as being dismissed," she told the newspaper.
Others were angered by what they saw as slurs cast on couples who could conceive only with the help of IVF.
"My husband and I are going through IVF & it's not because either of us are duds! ... I can't believe your uneducated, childish comments on the issue," one wrote on The Circle's Facebook page.
Others described the comments as "a cheap, nasty shot ... shameful ... disgusting", called The Circle "a chance for mean-spirited, un-Australian wombats to air their despicable invective", and demanded the hosts be sacked or the show axed.
Similar outrage flooded Fairfax websites, with one reader telling Stynes she had it wrong: Roberts-Smith "was diving down the bottom of the pool to find YOUR brain - oops, looks like he never found it".
Yesterday Stynes apologised on air, saying she had seen only a very handsome guy and "so I made a joke, because how could anybody possibly be so perfect?".
"What I didn't estimate was how much my joke was not appreciated ...
"And I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to offend anybody and I have total respect for people that work in the defence forces, and I've never met Ben but I'm sure he's lovely and he does seem like a big family man."
The Circle also posted an apology on its Facebook page.
"What started out as an innocent admiration of one of Australia's heroes today unfortunately ended up changing direction," it said.
"I hope you all know us well enough by now to know that we would never set out to upset anyone ... So sorry if we offended any of you today."
