Lisa Wilkinson opens up on gender pay gap and Karl Stefanovic’s massive money deal in new book

Lisa Wilkinson has revealed how Karl Stefanovic carved out a bigger pay deal for himself, cutting her out of a secret pact.

Karl Stefanovic proposed a “Friends-style” equal pay pact with former Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson before ditching her to carve out his own multimillion-dollar deal by playing rival networks off against each other.

The claim – along with revelations the controversial pay gap between the two was far greater than initially reported – is made in Wilkinson’s forthcoming autobiography It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, shedding new light on her fallout with Nine.

It emerges a day after an exclusive extract first the time revealed exactly how Wilkinson was dismissed from Today plus the awkward details of her upsetting last show and final encounter with Stefanovic.

‘I’ll be there for you’ … Lisa Wilkinson says Karl Stefanovic proposed a Friends-style pay pact.

“Karl said that with Georgie (Gardner) gone, and Ben (Fordham) having left to concentrate more on his radio career outside of Nine, we were the heart and soul of the show,” Wilkinson writes, referring to their former colleagues on the Nine morning flagship.

“Without us, he said, the network would be screwed. They needed us like never before. He wanted us to present to Nine as one entity, an unbreakable duo, with a dual contract on equal pay.”

Stefanovic modelled his proposed deal on the one brokered by the cast of Friends, who lobbied for equal pay together rather than negotiating individual contracts because they recognised that their combined chemistry was integral to its success.

“I was surprised and flattered he thought that about us,” she writes. “The ratings didn’t lie, though. We were regularly winning.”

‘Your job’s a joke, you’re broke’ … thankfully not for the Today friends back in the glory days: Wilkinson and Stefanovic with Ben Fordham, Sylvia Jeffreys, Georgie Gardner and Richard Wilkins.

However the proposal, in August 2015, was quickly forgotten and follow-up calls from Wilkinson’s manager to Stefanovic went unreturned.

“The silence was suddenly as deafening as it was telling,” Wilkinson reflects. That silence was interrupted weeks later when the media became awash with stories that Stefanovic was restless at Today and looking for greener pastures – and more civilised working hours – at Channel 7.

Behind the rumour-mill, a bidding war had ensued. And amid it all, while Stefanovic was on a six-week holiday in December, Wilkinson reveals she read breaking news that her co-host had inked a $2 million-a-year deal for three years in return for staying with Nine; and that it would be more than twice what she was earning.

’What it’s like to be me’ … Lisa Wilkinson has written her life story in It Wasn't Meant To Be Like This. Picture: Instagram

“He (Karl) had played both networks off against each other brilliantly and in full public view,” she writes. “There was no doubt about it: Karl certainly knew the art of the deal.”

In the book, Wilkinson writes that Stefanovic’s deal was in fact for five years; and that the real cash figure was even larger than reported.

“The truth was, the gender pay gap between Karl and me was so off the charts that no-one would have believed it – and much bigger than that figure that had been conveniently leaked,” she reveals.

Stefanovic’s epic payday was the talk of the town, while Wilkinson learned later that Nine was only offering to renew her contract for two years and without a pay rise to recognise the show’s improving ratings.

‘So no one told you life was gonna be this way’ … Charlie Pickering blindsided Wilkinson with a question about the Nine gender pay gap on The Weekly.

Although disappointed, she remained tight-lipped in public about the situation until she was blindsided by Charlie Pickering about the rumoured pay gap while a guest on The Weekly in May, 2017.

Wilkinson tried to sidestep Pickering’s questions – including one where he ironically asked whether they’d considered a Friends-style pact – saying she did not know what Stefanovic was earning; but she writes in the book that behind it “the inequality across a number of aspects of my job was starting to get to me”.

Having read an exaggerated account of the exchange with Pickering on a gossip news site, Stefanovic gave his co-star a frosty reception on set the next day.

‘Even at my worst, I’m best with you’ … the cast of Friends knew they were stronger together.

“He obviously felt that I had somehow broken whatever code it was that he, and boys clubs everywhere, were signed up to when it comes to the gender pay gap,” Wilkinson writes.

“A gap that flourishes in the silence of women. And I had just gone and done the unthinkable: I’d opened my mouth.”

It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, by Lisa Wilkinson and published by HarperCollins, is out on Nov 3 and available for pre-order now at Booktopia.

‘So far, things are going great’ … It Wasn't Meant To Be Like This tells Lisa Wilkinson’s story from suburban kid dealing with bullies (and her later public revenge) through heady days of Kerry Packer mag-land to TV stardom.