Lisa Wilkinson’s reason for discussing fractured relationship with Karl Stefanovic

Lisa Wilkinson has revealed why she’s waited four years to discuss her fractured relationship with Karl Stefanovic after telling The Project she felt “hurt” by him.

Just days after a bombshell excerpt from her memoir and subsequent tell-all interview were released, Lisa Wilkinson has revealed why she’s waited until now to break her silence on the shocking ins-and-outs of her Today show exit.

Speaking to News Corp, The Sunday Project host said the perspective she’s gained over the past four years was a crucial part of her decision, adding that she “wanted all the heat” to be gone before she told her side of the story.

Ultimately, Wilkinson said she’s “just not keeping men’s secrets anymore” to stop protecting the “boys’ club” of the television industry.

The duo hosted the Today show together for a decade.

It comes after an interview with journalist Hamish Macdonald in which she discussed how she was “humiliated” by Channel 9 amid negotiations to close the pay gap with her co-host Karl Stefanovic when she was “dismissed” from the Today show.

Her upcoming memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, delves deeper into her abrupt departure from the show, and how she was left feeling “hurt” by her co-host of 10 years.

In the book, she claims Stefanovic proposed they negotiate over pay together – before ditching her to make his own multimillion-dollar deal.

Since the extract was published, Wilkinson said she’s received a flood of supportive messages from women in the industry revealing similar experiences.

However, many may be wondering why she’s chosen to lift the lid on the awkwardness between her and Stefanovic given the pair seemed to publicly continue their friendship after her headline-making departure.

Wilkinson wished Stefanovic well after he was fired from Nine in 2018. Picture: Instagram.

“I know that I haven’t written a word in anger. I’ve waited four years to tell the story of what happened when I left Channel 9 because that perspective is really important,” she said in her latest interview with News Corp.

“What’s out there at the moment looks like I am trying to attack Karl, but as you know in the book, that’s not what I’m doing,” she said.

“I’m just not keeping men’s secrets anymore. I think, as women, when we do that all we do is strengthen the boys’ club and we do women a disservice.”

The cover of ‘It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This’by Lisa Wilkinson

Stefanovic was missing from the Today show panel on Monday morning in the wake of Wilkinson’s damning claims over the weekend, with the TV presenter yet to comment.

Nine said Stefanovic was on “planned leave” on Monday, and had also taken Friday off.

In It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, out November 3, Wilkinson has vowed to leave “no stone unturned”.

The autobiography runs to almost 500 pages and tracks her incredible rise through Australia’s media ranks, from being the youngest editor of Dolly magazine at just 21, to becoming the international editor-in-chief of Cleo, to her move into the TV world in the ’90s and beyond.

Originally published as Lisa Wilkinson’s reason for discussing fractured relationship with Karl Stefanovic