Lisa Wilkinson opens up on Nine pay talks: ‘Maybe my biggest crime is knowing my value’

LISA Wilkinson has finally broken her silence on pay talks with Channel Nine that broke down and led to her defection.

TELEVISION star Lisa Wilkinson has opened up about her defection from Channel Nine to Ten for the first time and revealed her “biggest crime (was) knowing my value”.

At a breakfast function in Melbourne, Wilkinson told the audience: “When you’re a woman, sometimes people don’t like it if you know your value”.

“I’m living breathing proof that knowing your value will take you places you didn’t think you’d get to,” she said, according to The Australian.

“Maybe my biggest crime is knowing my value.”

The former Today show host abruptly quit the network “where they make a lot of money” last month after Nine said in a statement it had “been unable to meet expectations of Lisa Wilkinson and her manager on a contract renewal”. It was revealed just hours later that she would be joining Channel Ten’s The Project in the New Year.

During her speaking engagement yesterday, Wilkinson said it was “tough” standing up for herself in contract negotiations with Nine, which broke down after the network would not meet her demands for pay parity with co-host Karl Stefanovic.

“When you feel that there’s a pattern being repeated that’s when you have to take a stand,” she told the audience.

“You draw a line in the sand, you work out this far and no further, and I got to that line in the sand and said ‘this far and no further’. And it was a really simple decision in the end.”