"The last six months have not been easy." Lisa Wilkinson is leaving The Project.

Lisa Wilkinson has announced she's stepping back from hosting The Project from tonight.  

The 62-year-old announced the news at the end of Sunday night's episode. 

"From tonight I'm stepping back from hosting the show," Wilkinson began. "Sitting at this desk and working with this incredible team - I can't look at you, Hamish. Both in front of and behind the camera, has been an absolute privilege. These people are genuinely some of the most talented and decent humans I know. And you, our passionate, engaged audience, have been so kind in making me feel so welcome in your homes. I've had a ball, but for me, right now, it's time for a change." 

"To be clear, I'm not leaving Ten and we are looking at some very exciting work ideas ahead," she continued. "But I also have to be honest with you, the last six months have not been easy, and the targeted toxicity from areas of the media has taken its toll."

"Not just on me, but on people I love. Don't get me wrong, I'm not above criticism, far from it," Wilkinson explained. 

"I'm human, and I don't always get it right, none of us do, but by God I've tried. I've given this job everything I have, and I hope you, at home, know that. I hope I've brought you stories that matter and introduced you to people whose lives and experiences might otherwise never be told, and helped bring into focus issues that deserve our collective attention." 

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"So, to everyone who has been so incredibly supportive and reached out, particularly in recent months, thank you. You'll never know how much it has meant to me. And finally to Leigh Sales, Tracy Grimshaw, and Carrie Bickmore, if you guys are for up for a drink, I'll see you at the bar. The margaritas are on me," she concluded. 

The news comes just a few months after Carrie Bickmore also announced that she's leaving the program at the end of the year. 

"After 13 years at The Project, I have made the tough decision to finish up hosting the show at the end of the year. It's been the hardest decision of my professional life, to make this call, but it's time for a new challenge and my next chapter," Bickmore said at the time. 

Before joining The Project in 2018, Wilkinson co-hosted Today, the Nine Network's breakfast program, with Karl Stefanovic for 10 years. She left long-running show after Channel Nine reportedly refused to pay her the same salary as Stefanovic. 

In 2021, in the lead up to the release of her memoir, It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This, Wilkinson spoke about feeling "humiliated" when she received a phone call telling her she was "dismissed" from the breakfast program.

Listen to Lisa's interview with Mia Freedman on No Filter. Post continues below. 

"I was standing in aisle six at Woolies holding a can of tuna," she told journalist Hamish Macdonald on The Project. "I felt stupid and humiliated and betrayed and pretty pathetic."

The Project co-host said no one knew she received an offer from Channel 10 at the time and believes the move was meant to "humiliate" her. 

"I think the idea was to humiliate me because I had been in negotiations to try and close the gender pay gap."

When asked how big the pay gap was, she replied, "It doesn't get much bigger than the gap that I experienced". 

"I was very expendable," she added. "I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to the audience. I was just told – that’s it."

At the time of publishing, no announcements have been made about Lisa and Carrie's replacements.