Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to pay Lisa Wilkinson’s husband Peter FitzSimons $4,616 because the author was asked to provide evidence in the defamation case against his wife and Network Ten.
FitzSimons, a prominent newspaper columnist and historical nonfiction writer, was subpoenaed last year to produce documents related to Brittany Higgins’ $325,000 contract to publish a book with Penguin Random House.
He negotiated his deal in a three-way auction between two other major publishers in early 2021.
Last July, he provided text messages between him and Higgins about the agreement ahead of Lehrmann’s defamation battle in Federal Court.
In March, FitzSimons filed a motion requesting that Judge Michael Lee order Lehrmann to cover the costs he incurred in complying with the subpoena.
He was not a witness in the defamation trial and did not personally attend court during the hearing.
Lehrmann lost the case on April 15 when Judge Michael Lee found, on a civil scale, that he had raped Ms Higgins in Parliament on March 23, 2019.
Lisa Wilkinson is pictured with Peter FitzSimons, who is holding a copy of her book, ‘The Opera House’.
Lisa Wilkinson is pictured outside the Federal Court in February with her lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC.
Judge Lee was to address the costs at a hearing on May 1, but that date was set aside in a court order on Friday when Lehrmann was ordered to pay the costs.
Mr FitzSimons’ wife, Mrs Wilkinson, will also have a costs application dealt with at the next hearing.
In February, she won a tender for Network Ten to cover legal fees associated with hiring her own lawyer to represent her in the defamation trial.
He could have used Network Ten’s lawyer Matthew Collins KC, but he claimed the network did not have his best interests at heart and hired Sue Chrysanthou SC instead.
His costs were worth more than $700,000 when the claim was filed in 2023, but are now reportedly worth more than $1 million.
Ms Wilkinson has not appeared on television for Channel Ten in about two years but has continued to receive her full salary of about $44,000 a week. Her contract expires in October.
Mrs Wilkinson, Mr FitzSimons and their three children live in a sprawling six-bedroom property worth up to $40 million in Sydney’s wealthy Cremorne.
They reportedly paid $1.4 million for the house and added extensions, including the addition of a huge master bedroom wing overlooking Sydney Harbour.
Pictured: Wilkinson and FitzSimons’ former home in Mosman, which they sold for $1.6 million.
Wilkinson also owns a 1970s one-bedroom unit in Cremorne overlooking Sydney Harbour, with views of both the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House (pictured).
Lehrmann’s defamation case was brought last year over an interview between Wilkinson and Higgins on Network Ten’s flagship show The Project in February 2021.
During the broadcast, Higgins said she was raped inside Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann was not named in the broadcast, but claimed that his colleagues and friends were able to identify him as the alleged rapist.
In sentencing, Judge Lee found that Lehrmann was identifiable to others in the broadcast, but was not defamed because Ms Higgins’ allegations about him were true on a balance of probabilities.
As the loser of the trial, Lehrmann will have to cover the costs of the case for Ms Wilkinson and Network Ten, which is worth an estimated more than $2 million.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside the Federal Court in Sydney in November.