Lisa Wilkinson has revealed how being bullied in school made her determined to support other women when she entered the competitive journalism industry.
In her upcoming bombshell memoir It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, the Australian television icon discussed her determination not to pit women against each other in the workforce.
“I know what it is to be diminished and disregarded and feeling very much alone at the hands of other women. I got to leave that environment and decide really consciously that I was going to rewrite the narrative,” she told The Courier Mail of her book’s anecdote.
“I was in a working environment where nobody knew [I was bullied]. I felt like I got this second chance to work out who I was and what my talents were.”
In her upcoming bombshell memoir It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, Lisa discusses her determination not to pit women against each other.
(Image: Harper Collins)
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Lisa has told her story in the hopes of encouraging women to lift each other up, saying female comradery creates more opportunities.
“When you pit yourself against another woman you only make that whole boys’ club stronger and they can say ‘look what happens when you put women together. They make it complicated and emotional’,” she said.
Lisa, who became the youngest editor ever appointed at Dolly magazine at the age of 21, said she was fortunate to have worked in exclusively female environments, adding that the television industry is a lot more male dominated.
The 61-year-old also gave kudos to Channel 9 for giving her the co-hosting role on Today when she was in her mid-40s, saying the network never judged her for her age.
“And audiences liked what they saw, they liked having a woman that had some flying miles under her belt,” she said.
The most intriguing passages from her memoir will focus on her decade-long stint on the show, her shocking exit, and her eventual jump to Channel 10’s The Project.
After discovering she was being paid half of what her co-host Karl Stefanovic was, Lisa infamously parted ways with her Nine family.
After discovering she was being paid half of what her co-host Karl Stefanovic was, Lisa infamously parted ways with her Nine family.
(Image: Nine)It was reported that Karl was earning $2 million, while Lisa was taking home $1.1 million, and after Channel Nine couldn’t negotiate equal pay, she left for The Project.
In a recent interview with journalist Hamish Macdonald, Lisa spoke about feeling betrayed by Channel Nine when she discovered she was no longer a part of the Today Show roster.
“I was standing in aisle six at Woolies holding a can of tuna [when she got the call from management],” she said.
“I felt stupid and humiliated and betrayed and pretty pathetic.”
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