Lisa Wipfli on secret to marriage success with Nova 96.9 host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli

The wife of a Nova 96.9 breakfast radio host has revealed why she sleeps in a different bedroom to her husband.

Lisa Wipfli is hoping to better the inaugural haul of $570,000 she helped raise in the inaugural Ronald McDonald House Charities Sydney Gala Dinner.

The wife of Nova 96.9 breakfast radio co-host Michael “Wippa” Wipfli is chair of the committee organising the event that will be held at Catalina on Thursday night and is expected to draw a who’s who of Sydney society to raise much needed funds for sick children and their families at Ronald McDonald House in Randwick.

“This year we are hoping to crack that ($570k) and maybe get more,” Wipfli told Confidential.

“We know it is a different economic climate now but the thing I love about this charity is that you know that every dollar goes towards people staying at the house.”

Longer term, Wipfli is hoping in years to come to crack $1 million in fundraising through the event.

Lisa and Michael Wipfli with their children Francesca 3, Ted, 8, and Jack, 6. Picture: Justin Lloyd

This year, some 140 guests will attend with Wippa and fellow radio and TV funnyman Hamish Blake to host.

With three children — Francesca, 3, Jack, 6, and Ted, 8 — it is a no-brainer to be involved in the event.

“I was an ambassador for a couple of years and all I was doing was a couple of social media posts and going to a few events and I thought to myself, ‘what am I doing calling myself an ambassador?’” she explained.

“I felt like a pretender, which is why I wanted to do more. I know there are a lot of charities out there but it felt like the right thing to do.”

Nova radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie. Picture: Tim Hunter.

As any parent would attest, the biggest fear when you have kids is one of your children falling ill, she said.

“You want to help out as much as you can because you know if you were in the same situation, people would help you as much as they could,” she said.

“With social media it feels sometimes like a pretty vacuous world so I just wanted to do more and I cannot fathom what these families go through.”

A recent story in Body+Soul saw the Wipfli’s reveal they controversially sleep in different bedrooms. To explain, Wipfli said her husband has been going through testing for sleep apnoea.

“You can clearly tell by hearing the freight train in the room that he has got sleep apnoea,” she said.

“He will probably end up with that Darth Vader mask but that is okay because I would much rather him be a healthy version of himself than have some sort of brain aneurysm because of the lack of oxygen.”

Initially, sleeping separately started when the kids were younger.

“Now I love it so much that I can’t go back,” she said.

“Obviously when we are on holidays, we sleep in the same bedroom. I am not a great sleeper, I wake up at the slightest noise so when I hear him heavy breathing making all of these horrendous noises, I am awake all night.

“Essentially we are in separate beds and can I just say, you are a much happier person when you get good quality sleep.

“While some people think it is the end of your marriage, it is so not, I am a much happier wife when I am not nudging my husband all night telling him to turn over because he is snoring.”