Following reports former Today show co-hosts Lisa Wilkinson, 59, and Karl Stefanovic, 44, had stern words at the TV Week Gold Logie awards last month, she’s finally broken her silence on what really happened between the pair on the red carpet.
To many viewers’ disbelief, on last night’s episode of The Project fellow Network Ten co-host Hamish MacDonald asked Lisa about the terse exchange, hoping she’d finally set the record straight.
WATCH LISA’S SHOCK CONFESSION BELOW
“So what did you say to Karl on the red carpet,” he asked to which Lisa responded, “I told him to go f**k himself.”
While it appeared the veteran journalist was being serious, she clarified later in the segment that she was poking fun at their reported feud, revealing there’s no bad blood between the pair.
Hamish’s burning question comes weeks after reports surfaced that despite exchanging pleasantries with Karl’s sister-in-law Sylvia Jeffreys, Lisa and Karl acted like strangers on the red carpet at the Logies.
“The pair didn’t spend any time chatting to each other on the red carpet,” an insider told a local publication.
Although Lisa remains adamant she’s on good terms with Cassandra Thorburn’s ex-husband, the mum-of-three made headlines last week when she took a not so subtle swipe at Karl after people began speculating that he was gunning for a spot on The Project’s panel.
“I think we’re all full at the inn at the moment,” the Channel 10 journalist told TV Week. “He might have to take a number!”
This isn’t the first time Lisa has taken aim at the This Time Next Year host. In a recent interview with The Herald Sun, she revealed she doesn’t work well alongside people with “big egos”, assumedly talking about the father-of-three.
“I’m not great around big egos, that doesn’t bring out the best in me,” she remarked.
In recent weeks, Karl has opened up about his sensational departure from Channel Nine, revealing he was “struggling towards the end of last year”.
Speaking at Channel Nine’s Gold Logie recovery brunch, the former breakfast show co-host candidly revealed he was having a tough time when he was dumped from the program while on his honeymoon with his shoe-designer wife, Jasmine Yarbrough.
“It’s been about six months since I was on the telly, and I needed to have a rest. Towards the end of last year, I was cooked,” he began. “It had taken its toll, a lot of the attention — all the unwarranted attention I thought, and you can’t control any of that, I’m not going to complain too much about that, but what it meant was that in a work capacity I don’t believe for a second I was at my best. I think I was struggling towards the end of last year.”
While his sensational exit came as a shock to thousands of Australian viewers, the beloved presenter said he knew the change was imminent, inevitable and necessary.
“So it wasn’t a great surprise to me — in fact, it was a relief in many ways — that I was taken off the Today show. Because I just wasn’t at my best and you can’t be doing that show unless you’re at the top of your game,” he said. “You’ve got to be sharp, you’ve got to be witty, you’ve got to be funny. You’ve got to see the angles, and to be honest, at the end of last year I wasn’t seeing much.”
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