Lisa Wilkinson opens up about ‘heartache’ of writing her memoir

Amid controversy surrounding some of the contents of her memoir, Lisa Wilkinson has opened up about the private “heartache” involved.

Lisa Wilkinson has opened up about the months of “heartache” and “pressure” that went in to writing her memoir, as bombshell excerpts from the book about her Today show past continue to make headlines.

Wilkinson, who was axed from Nine’s breakfast program in 2017, released her autobiography It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This last week – which pulled no punches in detailing the circumstances surrounding her shock exit from the show.

Taking to Instagram with a vulnerable new post this week, the Project shared a glimpse into her life behind the scenes, telling followers there’s little glamour in the writing process.

“Ever wondered what writing a book looks like?” she began, sharing a candid photo of her with her son and explaining that she suffered a “crisis of confidence” as she pieced together her autobiography.

Lisa said her son Jake helped “comfort her” as she struggled through the writing process.

“For me it was often like this: puffy, mascara-stained eyes after hours of tears & many months of a complete crisis of confidence, totally convinced I just wasn’t up to the task.

“It was being comforted by my son Jake (and superb editor) one night in early March as he patiently, lovingly assured his inconsolable mother that I COULD do this & should start submitting my finished chapters.”

Wilkinson, 61, went on to reveal she was “months behind deadline” after dropping everything to report on Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape by a former Liberal staffer, the story first broken by news.com.au’s Samantha Maiden.

“I was running months behind deadline, partly because I’ve never been a fast writer & partly because so much of the first few months of this year were devoted to getting the very important story of Brittany Higgins to air on @theprojecttv (and dealing with all that surrounded breaking the story, and the fallout, because right then nothing else mattered to me),” Wilkinson wrote.

Wilkinson led The Project’s Brittany Higgins coverage. Picture: Channel 10

“It was going to bed at 3AM & waking at 6AM so I could just keep writing. It was lots of cold pizza & even colder coffee. It was texting friends to apologise for disappearing & hoping they understood. It was being “grumpy mum” 24/7 and apologising for that too.

“It was telling @peter_fitzsimons NOT to tell me about how he wrote his books so efficiently (have a look at the size of his Mawson biography in the pic … hey, no pressure!) because I couldn’t follow any of it, and besides, would he please just go away?!!” she added of her husband, author and journalist Peter FitzSimons, joking that she’s been “a ball of joy to be around this year”.

She concluded by imploring followers who have considered writing a book to “do it!”.

“Because despite all the heartache, pressure, self-doubt, lack of sleep & all the apologising you have to do to those you love & who you ultimately realise will love you no matter what … that moment when you finally hold your finished book in your hands, and it’s real, and you’re proud because despite everything you pushed through all the obstacles, and readers start telling you the way it makes THEM feel, is incredible!

“But if you do write that book, please just know it doesn’t look anything like Carrie Bradshaw sipping wine in a designer outfit gently tapping on a computer looking wistfully out a window at the falling leaves of the East Village below.

“Turns out, it wasn’t meant to be like that. And in the end, I’m so glad & grateful it wasn’t,” she wrote.

Lisa Wilkinson with husband Peter FitzSimons. Picture: Instagram.

Among the many bombshell claims in her book, Wilkinson, 61, alleged that former colleague Karl Stefanovic, 47, with whom she’d co-hosted Today for a decade, had approached her to propose they negotiate over pay together – before ditching her to make his own multimillion-dollar deal.

When detailing how their joint pay negotiation plan had fallen through, Wilkinson claimed that Stefanovic had been the one to convince her it was the way to go.

“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

“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.”

Karl and Lisa in their first photo shoot together. Picture: Supplied.

She claims Stefanovic proposed a “Friends-style” negotiation tactic. The six core cast members from hit sitcom 90s Friends famously banded together as the show took off, each negotiating the same salary and vowing that if one of them quit, they all would.

But, Wilkinson writes, Stefanovic’s initial suggestion in August 2015 to emulate the Friends cast was soon cast aside, despite her efforts to move forward. Instead, she – along with the rest of the public – read the news in December that year that Stefanovic had signed a new $2 million deal to stay with Nine, after rumours that he was considering jumping ship to Seven.

“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.”

Wilkinson writes that the new deal meant her co-host would be earning more than double what she was. She says their pay gap was “so off the charts that no-one would have believed it – and much bigger than that figure that had been conveniently leaked”.

However, an exclusive report by news.com.au revealed Wilkinson actually earned double the salary of Stefanovic for many years before he inked the deal.

Wilkinson has hit out at the media coverage, saying Nine Network’s then chief executive officer, Hugh Marks, told “complete lies” about her fight for equal pay.

“All of those cheap tabloid headlines that have been out there over the past couple of weeks … I didn’t get involved, and now I’ve had to put the record straight, because I was just sick of reading these lies that were clearly designed to make it look like I was greedy and like I’d been lying for years,” she said.

Wilkinson also filmed a candid tell-all interview on The Project recently, saying she felt “betrayed” by her former employer and had been “hurt” by Stefanovic.

Stefanovic is yet to directly respond to the claims.