The Project host Lisa Wilkinson has spoken out about her devastating experience being bullied at high school—and how she eventually managed to break free from her tormentors.
Appearing on the panel of the hit Channel 10 show on Thursday night, Wilkinson spoke out about the dangers of bullying while interviewing campaigner and Project Rockit founder Lucy Thomas.
“I was bullied at school as well, Lucy, and one of the effects I realised was happening to me was I didn’t want to excel at anything,” Wilkinson recounted, news.com.au reports.
“If I was doing well at something, that meant that I stood out and became more of a target and what it means is that kids want to disappear between the cracks, which is terrible.”
Wilkinson said that while she did have friends around her “it didn’t really help because they got targeted as well. If they were hanging around me, they copped it to”.
The former TODAY host revealed she did not tell her parents at the time and felt completely humiliated.
“I didn’t tell my parents – I felt so humiliated and so small as a result of it,” she said.
“It’s the most awful, humiliating moment I’ve experienced in my life and I really feel for kids.”
But the 58-year-old star said she found some relief when her tormenters started leaving school or wagging. She also made a promise to herself in her final year of school, Mail Online reports.
“I promised myself on my very last day of school — year 12, last exam — I walked out the gates and I made a promise to myself that I would never again allow somebody to decide on my behalf who I was and what I was capable of,” Wilkinson told the panel.
“And then eventually you get to be the organiser of the school reunion, and let me tell you, that’s been pretty satisfying.”
