Lisa Wilkinson told her boss at Ten she was afraid she would have to sell her Sydney harbourside property if the network did not pay her legal fees, according to documents filed in the federal court.
The Network Ten chief executive, Beverley McGarvey, said that in a highly emotional call last year Wilkinson blamed the network for failing to stop the bad press that she believed had destroyed her reputation.
“She was almost immediately upset and started talking about her legal fees and how she would have to sell her house,” McGarvey wrote in a note to colleagues in June 2023.
“… She is being paid by us on full salary and lives in a lavish multimillion-dollar home with a pool and a tennis court and harbour views, so I hope this is not a real risk.”
McGarvey said Wilkinson was irrational and hysterical and could hardly talk for the sobbing.
“She made irrational claims about our choice of lawyers, because they work for News Corp.”
Hundreds of pages of confidential correspondence between Ten and its high-profile presenter detail an unravelling of the relationship over several months, resulting in a court battle that Wilkinson ultimately won this week.
Last year the former Project presenter filed a cross-claim against Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.
Wilkinson hired her own lawyers after believing Ten did not have her best interests at heart.
Wilkinson and her agent, Nick Fordham, repeatedly asked Ten’s crisis communications and legal team to correct stories in the press that were critical of her Logies speech.
Wilkinson was heavily criticised in the media for an acceptance speech she gave at the Logies in 2022 for a TV report about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
The ACT chief justice, Lucy McCallum, vacated the trial and set a new date due to the comments by Wilkinson and broadcasters Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones.
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Ten told Wilkinson and Fordham that nothing could be done until after the criminal trial of Lehrmann because they had promised the prosecutor they would not comment.
The court heard that McGarvey removed Wilkinson from The Project and promised her an interview series, which never eventuated.
Fordham wrote to McGarvey to say Wilkinson expected the calibre of interviewees to be like “Michelle Obama, world leaders and A+ list celebrities”.
“Lisa’s contract is for work on The Project, and to soften the very real blow this change will have on Lisa’s standing and reputation in the industry, we insist that Lisa’s future celebrity interviews, stories and coverage of international events appear on The Project.
“We would also require Lisa to be guaranteed major world-event postings for The Project covering things as next year’s coronation of King Charles. As you have mentioned, Lisa shines on the road.”
Justice Michael Lee said the judgment in the Lehrmann defamation trial was nearing completion and would be delivered in March or April.
Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over the interview.