Lisa Wilkinson, who staged the most dramatic exit from a job since that TV reporter announced live she was quitting to start a weed business, has finally addressed her sudden departure.
“It’s been a helluva week,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m only sorry that I never got the chance to say goodbye to you all.. the incredibly supportive, engaged, opinionated, clever and wonderfully diverse audience of Today.”
She posted a pic of a very young Karl Stefanovic and herself from 2007, a.k.a their very first publicity shoot.
“Look at us, we’re babies!” she said. They totally are: very accomplished, polished, and mature-looking babies.
Wilkinson left the Today show in a shock departure last week after pay negotiations with Channel 9 fell through, with the network reportedly refusing to match her salary to Stefanovic’s rumoured $200k per year.
The announcement came late Monday night and by Tuesday morning, Karlos was presenting the Today show with Weekend Today host Deborah Knight instead. (A full-time replacement has yet to be announced.)
About a nanosecond after her departure, Wilkinson announced she was joining Channel 10′s evening program The Project, as part of a rumoured $2.3 million deal.
And that in turn led to reports that Carrie Bickmore, rumoured to be on less than a quarter of that, was none too happy, but a producer on The Project smoothed down any talk of rivalries.
Wilkinson starts at Network Ten in January 2018.