Lisa Wilkinson reveals brutal Nine axing after awkward final encounter with Karl Stefanovic

Former Today host Lisa Wilkinson has revealed what happened the day she was brutally axed from Channel 9 in a shocking phone call.

Breakfast TV viewers across Australia were shocked when Lisa Wilkinson suddenly vanished from their screens, and now the popular former Channel 9 host has revealed what happened the day she was axed.

Today show viewers had spent more than a decade watching Wilkinson bounce jokes off her co-host Karl Stefanovic as they went through the morning’s top stories. They appeared genuine friends.

But in an exclusive extract from her memoir It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, published today by the Sunday Telegraph, Wilkinson has revealed for the first time how Stefanovic treated her with an unusual “disregard” on what ultimately became her final day on-air.

Hours later, she was sacked while shopping at Woolworths.

Sharing what happened when she was blindsided by a call from her manager telling her she’d been dumped from the network, and the bizarre and awkward lead-up to it, Wilkinson has provided some answers to years of speculation over what triggered her dramatic exit in October 2017.

Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic. Picture: Peter Wallis

In the book she writes of her awkward final on-air encounter with Stefanovic. She says he ignored her for a week in the lead-up to her brutal axing, after he ditched her 25th wedding anniversary celebration and vow renewal with a last-minute text cancellation.

“Karl and his new partner Jas had been invited but dropped out just two days before via a text to Pete saying that they were extending an overseas trip and wouldn’t be attending,” she wrote, adding how strange it was he hadn’t contacted her with apologies nor congratulations.

Wilkinson renewing her vows for her 25th wedding anniversary. Picture: It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This

This is the first photo shoot with the two TV stars together, back in 2007. Picture: It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This

“In the 10 days since, Karl hadn’t contacted me, his co-host of almost eleven years, at all. No phone message, no text, no apology, not even a simple congrats,” she wrote. “Just complete silence.”

She added: “In all the years we’d sat next to each other, even though there were the occasional frustrations on both sides, upsets were rare.

“But on this particular morning, I was upset. With limited numbers, there were two precious spots at the wedding we could so easily have filled with dear friends, but Karl’s late text meant those seats had gone empty.”

She wrote that as their first show back together began, Stefanovic arrived at the desk just in time to go to air leaving no room for small talk, and after filming a prerecorded segment, he was gone in a flash.

“Not a mention. Not a ‘how was the holiday?’ And certainly no ‘Sorry about that no-show at the wedding’. Not … anything,” she wrote.

“What I felt in that instant was hard to put into words. More than anything, I felt just a little bit pathetic. What was this thing Karl and I had between us?

“I’d presumed that along with our work relationship, there was a friendship as well. I must have been wrong.”

See the full extract in the Sunday Telegraph where Lisa Wilkinson for the first time reveals what happened that day.

Wilkinson said Karl’s behaviour that morning was strange.

She described Stefanovic’s treatment that morning as “uncaring disregard”, which didn’t improve throughout the show, and wrote how she was taken aback when congratulations finally came while the cameras were rolling.

“I don’t think the pause I took in that exact moment was picked up by the cameras, but in my mind it lasted an eternity. Now I get the congratulations? Because the cameras are on?” she wrote.

“What did Karl expect me to say? ‘Yeah, I did Karl and I invited you, you said yes, and at the last minute you didn’t show up and haven’t said a single word to me since?’”

The pair had worked together for 11 years.

Despite being hurt by the situation, Wilkinson said she took a deep breath and said: “Yeah, I did Karl, but why would anybody care about that when it’s news time? Good morning.”

After that comment, she said: “Karl knew I had cut him dead, something I had never done on or off air before.”

“For the next two hours, I exchanged not a single word with Karl outside of what was scripted – because for the first time, I just didn’t trust myself to ‘play nice’,” she wrote.

Lisa Wilkinson during an emotional interview on The Project about her departure from Channel 9.

Wilkinson revealed that as well as the brutal treatment from Karl that day, she also noticed the rundown of the day’s show was dominated by her uncharacteristically quiet co-host.

“Almost every interview was being done by Karl alone,” she wrote. “I had just about nothing to do.”

She said she messaged the show’s executive producer Mark Calvert during an ad break to ask what was going on, but got no response. She wrote that she tried to catch her boss after the show but found he had left the building. It was clear, in her mind, that something very strange was going on.

Lisa Wilkinson said she was ‘hurt’ by her relationship end with Karl Stefanovic.

Lisa said she doesn’t speak to Karl anymore.

Later that afternoon, the reason for the unusual treatment she had faced in the morning became clear during a trip to the supermarket when a call came from her manager.

He told her she was “off the show”.

“Permanently off. Never to appear again,” he told her. “Today was your last day.”

Wilkinson said she was left in a “fog of utter disbelief”.

“I had just been dismissed from Channel 9. Effective immediately,” she wrote. “In aisle six at my local Woolies. And I was holding a can of tuna.

“I hung up, and gently placed that tin of tuna back on the shelf. I then put back my other groceries, hoping that as I wandered the aisles, what I had just heard would start to make sense.

“But it didn’t. Those words just kept going through my head: ‘Never to appear again.’”

Wilkinson began connecting the dots from her bizarre morning and the unusual treatment from her co-host of 11 years.

“Was this why he didn’t attend the wedding and hadn’t spoken to me since?” she wrote. “Was this why he never said a word about the show’s strange rundown that morning?”

Lisa Wilkinson reveals cover of new memoir It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This.

Wilkinson said that, ultimately she was parting ways with Nine on a principle that had becoming a major sticking point for her — the pay difference between Stefanovic and herself.

“We had fallen out on the issue of the massive gender pay gap I’d been experiencing for years sitting next to Karl – despite together, taking the show to number one in the extremely lucrative breakfast TV ratings,” she wrote.

“Of all the hills for my time on the Today show to die on, I was OK with the fact that this turned out to be the one.”

news.com.au contacted Channel 9 which declined to comment.

At the time of her sacking, Nine’s then chief executive Hugh Marks said Wilkinson had demanded $2.3 million - $300,000 more than Stefanovic’s $2 million pay packet - despite her other commercial contracts prohibiting Nine full access to her.

Stefanovic, meanwhile, was contributing to various other Nine projects including 60 Minutes and This Time Next Year.

Marks said the network became frustrated after Wilkinson broke a story about fracturing her arm while on holiday in Europe on The Huffington Post - rather than on Nine.

“I went to an incredible amount of trouble to build a $1.8 million package for her. She wanted $2.3 million. It wasn’t a $200,000 shortfall to Karl’s $2 million magic number. It was $500,000,” Marks explained at the time.

“She has a number of commercial rights with other parties. Her arrangement with The Huffington Post restricts our ability to engage with her digitally... We are restricted from engaging with her also on social media.

“The reason we walked away from Lisa is because we are not able to secure those rights with her.

“It’s not just a pay thing. We want people to partner with us, who are invested and want to go on the journey with us.

“I have been a great supporter of women in our business in terms of salary equity and position, when we are discussing on-air talent we assess their contribution beyond just their gender, audience appeal, rights and contribution to the overall business - and not their own brand.”

Hours after being dropped by Nine, Lisa Wilkinson revealed she had accepted a job offer from Channel 10. Read how that happened, and much more, in It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, by Lisa Wilkinson and published by HarperCollins. It is out on November 3 and available for pre-order now at Booktopia.