Kyle Sandilands won’t be rushing out to buy Lisa Wilkinson’s autobiography, It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This, when it hits store shelves next week.
The radio presenter, 50, said her book sounded ‘boring’ and even questioned why she’d written one, asking: ‘How exciting could her life be?’
Speaking on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday, he acknowledged Wilkinson was ‘very good at her job’ as host of The Sunday Project but made it clear he wouldn’t be reading her memoirs.
‘How exciting could her life be?’ Kyle Sandilands has called Lisa Wilkinson’s autobiography, which hits shelves next week, ‘boring’ and even questioned why she’d written one
He went as far as to say he ‘couldn’t give a s**t’ about Wilkinson’s life and career, which began when joined Dolly magazine as an intern at the age of 19.
She went on to become the publication’s youngest editor at 21, before having a successful career in magazines then moving into television in the late 1990s.
Sandilands’ hostility to Wilkinson’s book may be due to his close friendship with Karl Stefanovic, her former co-anchor on Nine’s Today show.
‘Couldn’t give a s**t’: Sandilands, 50, acknowledged Wilkinson was ‘very good at her job’ as host of The Sunday Project but made it clear he wouldn’t be reading her memoirs
The pair didn’t always get along, and Wilkinson apparently grew tired of playing the straight man to her colleague’s blokey jokes and on-air hijinks.
They infamously fell out over a pay dispute that led to Wilkinson’s sacking in late 2017 – a saga which is documented in forensic detail in her memoirs.
Sandilands later turned his attention to Wilkinson’s husband, author and journalist Peter FitzSimons, who is known for wearing a red bandanna.
Picking sides: Sandilands’ hostility to Wilkinson’s book may be due to his close friendship with Karl Stefanovic (left), her former co-anchor on Nine’s Today show
He said he’d spent five years thinking FitzSimons, a former Wallaby, had cancer and the bandanna was concealing hair loss related to chemotherapy.
He also suggested the do-rag was ‘culturally inappropriate’.
It comes days after Wilkinson lifted the lid on her final days working at the Today show in an excerpt from her new book, published in The Sunday Telegraph.
She claimed Stefanovic, 47, had given her the cold shoulder in the weeks prior to her sacking, which was prompted when she asked for a significant pay rise.
Feud: The pair didn’t always get along, and Wilkinson apparently grew tired of playing the straight man to Stefanovic’s blokey jokes and on-air hijinks. They fell out over a pay dispute that led to Wilkinson’s sacking in 2017 – a saga which is documented in detail in her memoirs
She explained she and FitzSimons had invited Stefanovic and his partner, Jasmine Yarbrough, to attend their 25th anniversary vow renewal ceremony in October 2017.
Two days before the event, however, Stefanovic contacted FitzSimons to say they wouldn’t be attending because they’d extended their overseas holiday.
‘In the ten days since [the ceremony] Karl hadn’t contacted me, his co-host of almost eleven years, at all. No phone message, no text, no apology, not even a simple congrats. Just complete silence,’ Wilkinson alleged.
After returning to work, she claimed Stefanovic did not ask her about her holidays, nor did he apologise for being a ‘no-show at the wedding’.
Tense: It comes days after Wilkinson lifted the lid on her last days working at the Today show in an excerpt from her new book. She claimed Stefanovic, 47, had given her the cold shoulder in the weeks prior to her sacking, which was prompted when she asked for a significant pay rise
‘For the next two hours, I exchanged not a single word with Karl outside of what was scripted – because for the first time, I just didn’t trust myself to “play nice”,’ she said.
Wilkinson went on to say she was also ‘quietly fuming’ because ‘nearly every interview that day was being done by Karl alone’.
‘For two hours, I sat there feeling completely useless. The Today Show was now The Karl Show. What was the point of me even being there?’ she added.
In another extract published in The Herald Sun on Monday, Wilkinson addressed the gender pay gap between the two breakfast TV hosts.
Dispute: In another extract published in The Herald Sun on Monday, Wilkinson addressed the gender pay gap between the two breakfast TV hosts. Stefanovic was said to be earning at least $2million per year while Wilkinson was reportedly on about $780,000 a year
She alleged Stefanovic had proposed in August 2015 they join forces to renegotiate their Nine contracts – not unlike how the cast of American sitcom Friends famously worked together to broker better deals with NBC.
But she claims he ended up ditching this idea and instead played rival networks Nine and Seven off against each other in order to secure a better deal for himself.
‘Weeks later… the media became awash with stories that Stefanovic was restless at Today and looking for greener pastures – and more civilised working hours – at Channel Seven,’ she wrote.
Stefanovic was soon at the centre of a bidding war between Nine and Seven that resulted in him re-signing a five-year deal with Nine worth at least $2million per year.
Wilkinson’s deal was worth significantly less, about $780,000 a year, and was only for two years.
‘There was no doubt about it: Karl certainly knew the art of the deal,’ she wrote, adding that the resulting pay disparity between them ‘was so off the charts that no-one would have believed it’.
Other side of the story: Sources at Nine have since disputed this claim, saying Wilkinson had actually earned more than Stefanovic for years when they first joined forces on Today and it was only at the end of their partnership that the roles reversed
Sources at Nine have since disputed this claim, saying Wilkinson had actually earned more than Stefanovic for years when they first joined forces on Today and it was only at the end of their partnership that the roles reversed.
Wilkinson left the Today show in October 2017 after the reported gender pay gap dispute.
Nine was ‘unable to meet her expectations’ after she demanded equal pay with Stefanovic, according to reports at the time.
In January 2018, Wilkinson joined Channel 10 in a rumoured multimillion-dollar deal to host The Sunday Project.
New start: In January 2018, Wilkinson joined Channel 10 in a rumoured multimillion-dollar deal to host The Sunday Project
Since joining The Sunday Project, Wilkinson has landed sit-down interviews with the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kylie Minogue and Bradley Cooper.
In an interview with The Herald Sun in December 2018, she applauded the ‘integrity’ and high ‘calibre’ of her colleagues at Channel 10, including Carrie Bickmore, Fifi Box, Amanda Keller, Julia Morris and Gorgi Coghlan.
‘One of the absolute bonuses that I really hadn’t anticipated in moving to Ten, is the calibre of my colleagues,’ she said.
It Wasn’t Meant to Be Like This will be published by Harper Collins on October 27, and is available for pre-order at Big W and Booktopia for $27
Pals: Stefanovic (right) has a much better working relationship with his new Today co-anchor Allison Langdon (centre), with whom he attended The Everest horse race at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse on Saturday, alongside Langdon’s husband, Michael Willesee Jr. (left)