Lisa Wilkinson Shares The Shocking Secret That Has Tormented Her Since Childhood

As she celebrates 10 years as co-host of Today, the mum-of-three bares her soul.

- Tiffany Dunk

Watching her each morning on Today, Lisa Wilkinson is the flawless epitome of a woman with huge confidence, a ready smile, fierce intelligence and a willingness to battle for what’s right.

But when she was growing up, it was a very different Lisa who faced the start of each day. As a teenager she’d wake up fearful and terrified, looking for ways to blend into the background rather than stand out.

The 57-year-old TV host was the victim of relentless bullying – both physical and verbal – that she still can’t believe she survived.

It would get to the point, she says, where every day she was in fear of a gang of girls at her school.

“I felt so powerless,” Lisa tells Woman’s Day of her experience, which was at its height in her mid-teens. “I still don’t know how I survived it because every day I went to school I didn’t know if I was going to get beaten up.

“I became really good at hiding it. I hid it from my parents. I even hid it from my girlfriends because I didn’t want them to be subjected to the bullying as well.

“I would isolate myself so they didn’t become part of it because I felt so completely humiliated.”