Today co-hosts pay tribute to Lisa Wilkinson for her 10-year anniversary on the show

SYLVIA Jeffreys burst into tears during an emotional on-air tribute to Lisa Wilkinson as she celebrated her 10-year anniversary on the Channel Nine show.

IN A heartwarming piece of television, the Today team paid tribute to Lisa Wilkinson who is celebrating her 10-year anniversary on the show.

The Channel Nine breakfast team took the show on the road this morning to the Sydney suburb of Campbelltown where Wilkinson went to high school.

After airing a package of Wilkinson’s highlights from her decade on Today, Karl Stefanovic led the emotional tributes by praising his long time co-host.

“Since you came along, it’s been a real honour and a privilege to work with you and to call you a friend who has been there through so much of everyone’s lives at home, but also our lives personally,” Stefanovic said to Wilkinson.

“The ups and downs, the overs and outs, you have been a constant source of friendship and of love and on a day like today, all I can do is salute you and thank you for being part of my life.”

What a ten years it has been, @Lisa_Wilkinson! Thank you for all the memories. #9Today pic.twitter.com/1NeP5OuTeR

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) May 25, 2017

Sylvia Jeffreys couldn’t help but get emotional as she thanked Wilkinson for being an inspirational role model.

“From my perspective, only three years on the show, it is remarkable the way you continue to strive,” Jeffreys said as she wiped tears from her eyes.

“Every day, every interview, every segment, every single thing you do, you strive for excellence and you never stop and you set such a wonderful example for every woman in the industry, which is such an incredible thing.

“It is wonderful to sit next to someone like you, to absorb everything. It’s a really special thing. I’m crying more than you.”

As her husband Peter FitzSimons and three children surprised her on stage, Wilkinson thanked her co-hosts for their kind words.

“Can I just say what an incredible privilege it has been to front the show for the last 10 years,” she said.

“It is a job that I never ever in a million years, certainly when I was growing up in Campbelltown, that I could have imagined I would be lucky enough to have. But it is such a

privilege to wake up with all of you, every single morning, and the feedback that we get and the encouragement that we get from you means everything to us. It is why we keep getting up at an ungodly hour every day, as does the entire crew on the show.

“We’re just the faces out the front. But the people behind the scenes that put this show together are phenomenal. They are so supportive of all of us and we couldn’t do the show without them. So I want to salute all of them this morning as well as all of you at home. Thank you so much for your support.”

We're full of surprises this morning! #9Today pic.twitter.com/b87aUxFeBN

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) May 25, 2017

Wilkinson brought stability to the Today show when she joined the program back in May, 2007.

She was the fifth female co-host of the show in a tumultuous 18-month period for the breakfast show.

At the time, Wilkinson was also considering an offer to join Channel Seven’s The Morning Show as Larry Emdur’s co-host, but a run-in with Karl Stefanovic at that year’s Logies convinced her Today was the right choice.

“We made each other laugh,” Wilkinson told Stellar recently about her brief encounter with Stefanovic that night.

“I went to bed that night deciding I was going to do this thing.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.