couples

Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons share more details about how they revived their marriage.

Together they make-up one of Australia’s most high-profile and recognisable couples.

But for Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson, they have few qualms in being totally and brutally honest about the reality of marriage (namely, their own) and championing transparency when it comes to what makes their relationship work.

Just this week, Wilkinson spoke to the Australian Women’s Weekly about how she “got [her] husband back”, after he decided to give up alcohol two years ago.

And now, FitzSimons has responded in his own column for the Sydney Morning Herald, admitting his wife isn’t too far off the mark and he is a much better husband sober.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australian men, particularly, are surely in the same boat.

"In our middle age, through pressures of work and parenting, we got into a pattern of drinking waaaaay too much, to the point that being a bit pissed after lunch and/or dinner becomes normal.

"I am a much better husband stone-cold sober," he wrote.

Speaking to the Australian Women’s Weekly, Wilkinson admitted after years of coming home to find FitzSimons sleeping off long lunches, of conflicts and steely silences their relationships is stronger than ever.

“I feel like I have my husband back,” she said.

“He stopped caring when he had alcohol. He wouldn’t care too much what he’d say to me, he’d be careless, he might upset me — and it actually takes a lot to upset me,” the 56-year-old told the magazine.

“Either an argument would start and I’d extricate myself, or I’d think, ‘this is probably going to end in an argument so I’ll extricate myself’.”