Lisa Wilkinson has left The Project after five years, citing the toll of “targeted toxicity” from sections of the media she has been subjected to.
“The last six months have not been easy,” Wilkinson told viewers of the Channel Ten panel show on Sunday night. “And the relentless, targeted toxicity of some sections of the media has not only affected me, but the people I love as well.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not above criticism. Far from it. I’m human and I don’t always get it. None of us do. But by God I’ve tried. I’ve given this job everything I’ve got.”
Paramount Australia chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said Wilkinson had brought experience and professionalism, “as well as her warmth, compassion and integrity” to The Project and The Sunday Project.
Wilkinson joined Ten in 2017 following a widely publicized dispute with Channel Nine over the level of her pay compared to that of her Today co-presenter Karl Stefanovic.
Wilkinson said Sunday that he would not be leaving Ten.
“I’ve had a ball,” he said. “But for me now it’s time for a change. Let that be clear. I’m not leaving Ten and we’re looking at some really exciting work ideas going forward.”
Wilkinson has been the target of some sections of the media since the publication of his memoir, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, in which he described his contract negotiations with Nine.
Media criticism intensified in June when the trial of the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrmann, was delayed.
Lehrmann has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to a charge of non-consensual sex.
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Wilkinson won the Logie for Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Reporting for his work on the Higgins story.
But after Wilkinson’s acceptance speech, the president of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, Lucy McCallum, decided “regretfully and with gritted teeth” that she would leave the trial because of comments by Wilkinson and others from broadcasters Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones.
The trial eventually took place later in the year, but the jury was discharged last month after a juror was found to have brought unauthorized material into the jury room.
Lehrmann will face a new trial in February.