Lisa Wilkinson Returns to the Spotlight as Keynote Speaker at Eatons Hill Hotel Business Lunch
Lisa Wilkinson has been spotted at Brisbane airport heading home after giving a keynote speech at an International Women’s Day event.
The former Project co-host showed off a graceful figure in a black button-up dress and white sneakers as she strolled through the airport alone on Friday afternoon.
She wheeled her suitcase through the terminal with her boarding pass in hand as she spoke on the phone with a serious expression on her face.
He stayed on his phone as he checked in and went through security gates for his flight back to Sydney.
Wilkinson reportedly overlooked copies of his biography, which were on sale at the airport kiosk for 30 percent off.
Earlier, her biggest fans braved the rain in designer outfits to watch the former TV presenter rave about her career and her year-long book, in a remote pub below the slot machines.
Lisa Wilkinson was seen at Brisbane airport preparing to fly back to Sydney on Friday.
Wilkinson, 63, has been conspicuously absent from the spotlight since stepping down as host of The Project last year, following a tumultuous 2022 that saw her criticized for her Logie acceptance speech for her interview with Brittany Higgins.
She is now being sued for defamation by Ms Higgins’ alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann, for that very interview. She strongly denies sexually assaulting Ms Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.
The veteran journalist hired her own legal team to help fight the lawsuit and convince a judge that Ms Higgins’ allegations are true and therefore her television interview was not defamatory.
Meanwhile, the former television The hostess is inching her way back into the spotlight, namely as a keynote speaker at a “low-key” business lunch on Friday afternoon, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The venue of his triumphant return was Eatons Hill Hotel, a lesser-known pub and events venue about 25 minutes north of Brisbane that has a reputation for NRL brawls and rowdy crowds.
Wilkinson was in Brisbane to give a keynote address at an International Women’s Day event.
His biography was 30 per cent off at the Brisbane airport news agency.
However, the sold-out event set back the backers $140 each. Tickets included a two-course lunch, drinks and a lengthy networking event following Wilkinson’s two-hour speech.
A security guard was stationed at the front of the function room, in front of the ticket collectors, questioning anyone who seemed a little out of place.
A fan was holding a copy of Wilkinson’s 2021 memoir, It wasn’t meant to be this way, as he told the organizers that he did not have a ticket to the event. She asked for an autograph in her place, but was turned down.
In the room directly above the function space where Wilkinson fans raved about what to expect during the exclusive event, middle-aged and elderly men in shorts and T-shirts sat by slot machines with cold schooners.
A lunch announcement said Wilkinson would spend the two-hour session briefing her fans on “how a young woman from Sydney’s western suburbs came to be such a force in Australian media and our cultural life.”
The blurb for the event was eerily similar to a speech Wilkinson gave at another International Women’s Day function last year, which was hosted by Marie Claire at a luxurious Sydney CBD hotel, and featured Ms Higgins as a guest speaker. .
At that event, Wilkinson recounted that she was a girl from Campbelltown in Sydney’s western suburbs who applied for a job as an editorial assistant at Dolly and became the magazine’s editor at age 19 with no qualifications.
Wilkinson has enjoyed a 40-year career in the media and now earns an impressive seven-figure salary. Despite her impressive resume, she claimed that she “doesn’t know” how it all happened.
During her interview with Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021, the former parliamentary staffer alleged that she was raped by “a male colleague” in Parliament House two years earlier.
Lisa Wilkinson looked solemn as she spoke on the phone while waiting for her flight home.
The former Project star remained on her phone for much of her time at the airport.
Lehrmann was not named during the television show or publicly identified as Higgins’ alleged rapist until August 2021, when he was indicted for sexual assault.
He pleaded not guilty and continues to maintain his innocence.
According to a lawsuit filed in Federal Court on February 7, Lehrmann will allege that Channel 10 and Wilkinson were “recklessly indifferent to truth or falsehood” when the allegations were made against them.
Specifically, it will be alleged that Wilkinson “sought to exploit the false allegations of sexual assault made by Higgins for his own personal and professional gain.”
Lehrmann, a former political staffer, strenuously denies having sexual contact with Ms. Higgins.
Channel 10’s lawyers at Thomson Geer submitted documents indicating they would represent Wilkinson; however, new documents filed less than a day later said the deal was over.
Federal Court documents indicated that Wilkinson would be represented by Gillis Delaney Abogados and his partner Anthony Jefferies.
He also retained defamation lawyer Sue Chrysanthou. It is understood that Wilkinson will finance the legal team herself.
Lisa Wilkinson wore a black button-up dress that she paired with white sneakers.
Wilkinson was a guest speaker at an event at Eatons Hill Hotel on Friday before flying home later.