Lisa Wilkinson felt “alone” and unsupported by Network Ten as her reputation was being “trashed in the media”, the veteran TV presenter has told the federal court.
The former Project presenter has also revealed Ten executives pulled her off air after her Logies speech was criticised as reckless.
“I was shocked, embarrassed and deeply disappointed by [Ten CEO Beverley] McGarvey’s decision to remove me from The Project,” Wilkinson said in an affidavit.
“At that time, my most recent contract as co-host of The Project had only been signed 11 months before and still had more than two years to run.”
She said she found out from her agent that Ten was doing a “rebrand” and she was off the panel due to “brand damage”.
Wilkinson said she was promised an interview series but nothing has yet eventuated.
The former Project presenter 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 speech led to the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann in the ACT Supreme Court for the alleged sexual assault of Higgins being delayed by three months.
Wilkinson was cross-examined on Tuesday in her cross-claim against Ten over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Lehrmann defamation case.
She said Ten failed to make it clear publicly that her Logies speech was approved by senior executives at Ten and the network’s legal team.
“They approved that speech at the highest levels of the network,” Wilkinson said.
“All of them had approved the speech, but I was the one that was accused in this Daily Mail headline, me alone, of derailing the rape case.”
Wilkinson told the court she asked Ten to make it clear to the public that they had fully supported her in making the speech because was being unfairly portrayed in the media as “legally irresponsible”.
“It signified to me that Ten had no real interest in publicly correcting any of the damage done to me and my reputation, and were now only making it worse,” she said.
“I felt the decision would indicate to the public that I had in fact done something wrong. I knew that the story of me leaving The Project would result in a continuation of significant and humiliating headlines.”
Wilkinson told the court she lost faith in Ten’s ability to represent her legal interests so she hired her own legal team.
Wilkinson said she was not confident Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, would represent her best interests adequately given he had criticised her on television for giving the Logies speech.
She said she repeatedly asked Ten to support her publicly and to say that she had not been warned by former the ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold not to make the Logies speech.
“If Mr Drumgold had told me not to give the speech, I would have followed that advice,’’ Wilkinson said in her affidavit.
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Ten has rejected Wilkinson’s claim for legal fees and has told the court there is “no objective reason which required Ms Wilkinson to engage separate legal representation in this matter”.
Network Ten’s head of litigation Tasha Smithies denied her advice that the Logies speech was “OK” had exposed Wilkinson to public criticism.
She also defended the network’s decision not to reveal the nature of the advice until now, even though it was damaging to Wilkinson’s reputation.
The network’s barrister, Robert Dick, SC, told Justice Lee Ten did not accept the legal advice it gave Wilkinson was “completely inappropriate”.
Lee asked: “Does Channel Ten say…the advice that was given was anything other than completely inappropriate?”
Dick replied: “No we don’t accept that it was completely inappropriate.”
Dick said Ten accepted that ultimately it “gave rise to a real risk of contempt, and it was unfortunate”.
Earlier, Justice Michael Lee said the judgment in the Lehrmann defamation trial was nearing completion and would be delivered in March.
Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins on The Project in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.
Lehrmann, who is in court for the cross-claim, maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
After the trial was aborted in December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
The hearing continues on Wednesday.
