‘The happiest I have ever been’: Lisa Millar on recovering from online bullies

Being nominated for a Gold Logie has given veteran ABC journalist and presenter Lisa Millar the chance to raise a middle finger to online trolls.

Gold Logie nominees, Poh Ling Yeow, Allison Langdon, Hamish Blake, Julia Morris, Sonia Kruger and Lisa Millar. Picture: Getty Images

It’s a little over two years since Lisa Millar was bullied so relentlessly by online trolls that she was unable to return for the final segment of ABC’s flagship breakfast program that she had hosted for four years.

But this week she can raise a figurative (and literal) middle finger to those whose vile, misogynistic remarks left her so humiliated she was forced to see a psychologist to help her cope.

Now, thriving in her new post-News Breakfast life, she enjoys hosting Muster Dogs and Back Roads – free from the 3am alarm – and is basking in the glow of a new relationship.

And on Monday, Millar was named the ABC’s sole nominee for the Gold Logie award.

In March, 2023, an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction had left Millar, 56, showing “more leg than some people wanted to see,” she said.

Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar on the set of ABC News Breakfast. Picture: Supplied

In a break, she scanned various news websites, and leading one she saw a story that had republished the disturbingly misogynistic remarks one anonymous troll had made about her which had gone viral online.

“I was still on air, it’s 8.55am and up on my computer comes the first story (about the comments on social media),” Millar said.

“I couldn’t go on with the program, I could feel the tears immediately.

“I just thought, ‘oh my god’. I already felt fat and lacking confidence and now this has happened and I left the couch before the end of the program and just burst into tears.”

The tears continued when she got home that day.

The experience sent her into therapy to build the coping mechanisms that would help her deal with the humiliating and demoralising experience.

Veteran presenter Millar now hosts Muster Dogs and Back Roads. Picture: Supplied

Now, after decades on television and the most gruelling schedules as a host of a breakfast television program, Millar can add Gold Logie nominee to her list of accolades.

“I cannot confirm or deny if I raised the middle finger to an imaginary world out there,” she said.

“I may have hidden it behind my palm … it felt good.

“But it does still feel slightly unbelievable.

“You know one of the first things I did? I went to Wikipedia and went back and looked at every single name since the 1960s of who had been nominated for the Gold Logie and I just shook my head in disbelief that I am among those names.”

Millar says she is now happier than she has ever been – professionally and personally. Picture: Supplied

But the wounds left by the bullies haven’t fully healed.

“The first thing that came to my mind was joy, but the second or third was ‘can I survive if suddenly the trolls wanted to start a campaign against me?’, and the answer is that I can.

“It was a thought that came as a flash and I quickly got rid of it because I didn’t want them to take away the joy.”

Regardless of whether the keyboard warriors turn their vile barbs towards her again, Millar will still get the last laugh – she describes 2024 as “the best year of my life”.

She loves her role on Muster Dogs and Back Roads, which takes her to her beloved regional Australia, and after the personal turmoil that comes with being a foreign correspondent for 12 years and a breakfast television presenter for five, she has also found space in her life for love.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, that came in the form of an international pilot who travels just about as much as she does.

“Simon works his roster to make sure that we’re both away at the same time so we can both be together when we come back,” she said.

“It’s amazing for two people who travel all the time, but we are both putting in 120 per cent effort to make sure we maximise the time we have together.

“I cannot remember a time when personally and professionally I have been this happy.”

Originally published as ‘The happiest I have ever been’: Lisa Millar on recovering from online bullies