Lisa Wilkinson opens up about her friendship with former colleague Karl Stefanovic… but admits they’d ‘annoy the living daylights out of each other’
Lisa Wilkinson spoke candidly about her friendship with her former Today colleague Karl Stefanovic during her appearance on Anh’s Brush with Fame on Tuesday.
The 60-year-old journalist admitted she was relatively new to the world of television when she joined Today back in 2007, and said Karl helped her adjust.
Lisa recounted that she and Karl, 45, shared a computer in the Channel Nine offices, and said all the emails from viewers would go directly to them.
Tell-all: Lisa Wilkinson spoke candidly about her friendship with her former Today colleague Karl Stefanovic during her appearance on Anh’s Brush with Fame on Tuesday. Pictured together at the Today Show 25th Party in Sydney in June 2007
She said she opened one email shortly after she’d started on the show, and discovered ‘it was really not nice’.
‘Karl just felt that something in me had dropped, and he sort of grabbed my hand and he said, “Are you OK?” I said, “No, I’m not,”‘ she recounted.
She said Karl ‘immediately shut the computer down’ and reassured her that other people’s opinions weren’t important.
Appreciative: The 60-year-old journalist admitted she was relatively new to the world of television when she joined Today back in 2007, and said Karl helped her adjust
He told her they needed to focus on ‘giving the best show we can’ and said ‘everything will flow from that’.
‘I’ll always be grateful to Karl for that,’ she reflected.
‘I can honestly say right up until our very last show together, we could still make each other laugh, we could still challenge each other, we could still disagree.
‘I can honestly say right up until our very last show together, we could still make each other laugh, we could still challenge each other, we could still disagree,’ she said. Pictured on Today in June 2007
‘We could still annoy the living daylights out of each other, but we still cared about each other.’
Speaking about her decision to quit the long-running breakfast show in 2017, Lisa said that after years of being an advocate for pay equality, she had to take a stand.
Lisa sensationally quit the program after Channel Nine failed to meet her requests to be paid the same amount as Karl.
‘We could still annoy the living daylights out of each other, but we still cared about each other,’ she said of her relationship with Karl
‘The gender pay gap is a real issue. And if I’m going to talk the talk, I have to walk the walk as well,’ she said, admitting that while she didn’t know exactly how much the pay discrepancy was between herself and Karl, it was ‘significant’.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph’s Stellar Magazine in March, Lisa revealed she and Karl hadn’t seen each other since she left the Today show.
‘The timing just hasn’t worked,’ she said of the reason behind why they hadn’t been in contact.
Pay gap: Speaking about her decision to quit the long-running breakfast show in 2017, Lisa said that after years of being an advocate for pay equality, she had to take a stand