Lisa Wilkinson ‘sobbing’ over fears she could be forced to sell multimillion-dollar mansion
Lisa Wilkinson was “almost hysterical” as she detailed her fears she would have to sell her multimillion-dollar Cremorne mansion.
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Lisa Wilkinson was “almost hysterical” and “sobbing” as she detailed her fears she would have to sell her multimillion-dollar Cremorne mansion to pay her legal fees according to her boss Network Ten CEO Beverley McGarvey.
The bitter battle behind the scenes over Ms Wilkinson’s decision to hire top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC and her own legal team has been detailed in new emails and texts tendered in the Federal Court.
The new trove of court documents also reveals the TV host had a $100,000 annual wardrobe allowance, which was then slashed to $40,000 after November 18, 2022 when she was “removed” as a regular host on The Project.
In a briefing note prepared for Ten’s legal team Ms McGarvey details a “challenging” call she had with the network star on June 7, 2023.
She had called to ask how Ms Wilkinson was going in the wake of Channel 7’s Spotlight program and the leaking of audio provided to police and lawyers but never tendered in court.
“Lisa was very upset and emotional and it was a very challenging call,” MsMcGarvey wrote.
“She was almost immediately upset and started talking about legal fees and how she would have to sell her house.
“I would say her tone was almost hysterical.”
But the Ten CEO then made a series of observations about the value of her Cremorne family home.
“She is being paid by us on full salary, and lives in a lavish multimillion dollar home with a pool and a tennis court and harbour views so I hope this is not a real risk,” she said.
“She asked if we would pay for her fees and this came up over and over again in the conversation. I told her to talk with Nick, her manager.
“But she had chosen her own legal team against our advice and chosen a team we objected to.
“She said if I actually cared about her, I would make sure we pay their legal fees.”
The documents were released by the Federal Court on Friday after Ms Wilkinson won her legal battle to force Network Ten to pay for her legal fees that are estimated to amount to up to $2 million. The exact amount Ten will pay is not yet determined.
‘Irrational claims about our choice of lawyers’
The new documents reveal Ms Wilkinson was upset that Thomson Geer, the media lawyers acting for Ten, also acted for News Corp, the parent company of news.com.au.
“She made irrational claims about our choice of lawyers because they worked for News Corp,” Ms McGarvey claims in her briefing note..
“She seemed to imply although it was confusing that she thought that meant our lawyers were feeding stories to News Corp.
“It should be noted the lawyers she has chosen has represented Lachlan Murdoch and also News Corp.
“She was very angry at me and very upset at others sobbing so much she could not talk. The recurring theme was that she did not believe we were supporting her.
“She asked what moment it all went wrong. I assured her there was no moment. She asked what she had done to me and what she had done to make me or someone at the network hate her.”
Ms McGarvey said that Ms Wilkinson was extremely upset and raised her voice several times “about how we have not stopped all the bad press about her.”
“It has destroyed her reputation. She gave some confusing examples,” Ms McGarvey said.
“She believes the Logies was the moment it became untenable and she blames us for that.
“I told her I found her comments offensive and we did care about her and our brand. I generally stayed calm. However in several moments I found myself agitated and had to take breaths to calm down.
“She said the Spotlight programme was disgraceful. And I agreed, noting Bruce (Lehrmann) had the right to his say, but they used material they obtained from a source unknown to us.”
She said Ms Wilkinson was annoyed that the material leaked.
“I explained material had been subpoenaed from us.” Ms McGarvey said. “She said we told her the material was confidential. I told her that was true. And as far as we could tell, there was no legal way for the material to change hands.
“She in no way feels she has done anything wrong at all.”
Ms Wilkinson lost a bid last week to redact some evidence on privacy grounds.
It related to separate documents where Ten revealed she was so distressed in the wake of damaging leaks over her six-hour interview with Brittany Higgins that Ms McGarvey feared for her “state of mind” and wanted her to have mental health support.
Documents released this week revealed for the first time that the Channel 10 star complained of the “weaponisation” of an alleged rape victim after her employer informed her that Ms Higgins was opposed to the television host hiring her own barrister in the defamation trial.
Network 10’s head of litigation Tasha Smithies, who gave evidence on Tuesday, details the negotiations over legal counsel in her own affidavit tendered to the court.
“I assume that Ms Wilkinson is referring to an email from Mr Zwier that Ms McGarvey forwarded to Mr Fordham and Ms Wilkinson on 15 March 2023 which stated the following,’’ she writes.
“For the avoidance of any other misunderstandings, Brittany has instructed me not to assist lawyers and counsel currently retained by Lisa Wilkinson to defend civil claims commenced by Lehrmann against Lisa Wilkinson,’’ Mr Zwier wrote.
“I am not prepared to work with Lisa’s current senior counsel, under any circumstances. And the more Brittany is required to deal with differing lawyers, the worse it is for her to manage the civil trial processes, to the detriment of all those defending Lehrmann’s civil claims.
“If Lisa Wilkinson subsequently elects to retain the same lawyers as Ten then the process will be smoother, more orderly and manageable.”
Ms Smithies notes that Ms Higgins was a critical third party witness from the trial, and was integral to any truth defence that Network Ten or, necessarily, Ms Wilkinson would put forward.
“We had no control over her legal representation, and Network Ten had limited dealings with them,’’ Ms Smithies said.
“I do not understand how informing Ms Wilkinson and Mr Fordham of the fact that Ms Higgins, a critical witness, did not want to assist their choice of legal representation constitutes weaponisation of Ms Higgins.”
Justice Michael Lee has reserved his decision in the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, who maintains his innocence.
Originally published as Lisa Wilkinson ‘sobbing’ over fears she could be forced to sell multimillion-dollar mansion
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