The tense relationship between Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten is expected to be revealed in the Federal Court on Tuesday.
Wilkinson will claim the network removed her as host of The Project amid the collapse of Bruce Lehrmann’s first criminal trial in June 2022, and the fallout surrounding her Logies speech just days before the hearing.
The ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum was concerned Wilkinson’s speech would bias a jury against Mr Lehrmann and delayed the trial to October 2022, and slammed Wilkinson for making the speech in the first place.
In court on Tuesday, Wilkinson will reportedly argue the network gave her speech the tick of approval – but then blamed her for the public fallout.
At the time, Wilkinson stepped down as host of The Project, citing ‘toxicity’ in the media.
However, it is understood she will argue the Logies speech was the real reason.
Those details have never been revealed because legal advice between Network Ten and Wilkinson was protected by legal privilege, but that has been waived for the cross-claim.
When Mr Lehrmann filed the defamation case against the Network, citing Wilkinson as the first respondent, she hired her own barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, to defend her rather than using Ten’s lawyers.
She did not feel the network had her best interests at heart.
The matter will span Tuesday and Wednesday, and was initially planned to only deal with Wilkinson’s civil matter against the network.
But after Justice Lee saw the documentation prepared by the parties, he decided there was new evidence relevant to the main defamation claim.
