Who is Taylor Auerbach? Inside the colourful career of TV producer at the ... trends now
A journalist who is expected to drop bombshell allegations at Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case against Network Ten is no stranger to the hot seat - having gone toe-to-toe with Eddie McGuire on Millionaire Hot Seat.
Network Ten on Tuesday will throw a last-minute grenade into the high-profile civil case by asking the Federal Court to consider new evidence from Taylor Auerbach, 32, a former producer of Channel Seven's Spotlight program.
That evidence would be tendered just two days before two days before Federal Court Justice Michael Lee is scheduled to hand down his judgment in the lawsuit, which relates to The Project's interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021.
That interview was where Ms Higgins first claimed she had been raped by an unnamed staffer at Parliament House - a charge that Mr Lehrmann has always denied, with his criminal trial permanently stayed due to juror misconduct.
Should Justice Lee agree to hear the new evidence at a special hearing at 5pm today, Auerbach will be called to give evidence. But who is he?
Taylor Auerbach has had a rollercoaster career as a journalist and now finds himself at the centre of a bombshell development in Australia's most controversial defamation case
Auerbach issued Bruce Lehrmann (above) with a concerns notice after Lehrmann denied a story that Thai masseuses had been hired by Auerbach during meetings with Seven's Spotlight program
Auerbach, 32, is a Sydney media identity who has worked for several major tabloid news outlets in NSW.
He has recently found himself in the headlines amid a falling out with Steve Jackson, a Channel Seven producer who, until last week, was poised to become NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb's new spin doctor.
A bizarre report surfaced two weeks ago where it was claimed Auerbach reportedly paid $2940 for Thai masseuses for himself and Mr Lehrmann last year on a Channel Seven credit card - with Jackson reportedly texting him advice on how to reverse the transaction.
Auerbach, who left Seven last year, lost his job at Sky News after the report was published and the commissioner later decided not to proceed with Jackson in his new role, despite no suggestion of wrongdoing.
It is just a small taste of Auerbach's varied career. Auerbach made news before he became a journalist. He became the youngest winner of Millionaire Hot Seat aged 18 in 2009, pocketing $50,000.
Then a journalism student at the University of Technology, Sydney, Auerbach was promised a job at Channel Nine on air by show host Eddie McGuire - but the banter didn't eventuate into an actual job offer.
Auerbach appeared on Channel Seven, in the Herald Sun and the Macarthur Chronicle and on radio about the matter. He also was a contestant on the 2010 cooking program, Come Dine With Me Australia, where he hosted a dinner party with a 1950s rock-and-roll theme.
Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou arrive during defamation trial hearings which were meant to culminate with a judgment on Thursday but a Channel 10 application could delay that
Brittany Higgins arrives with lawyers, supporters and her fiance David Sharaz at the defamation trial last year
At News Corp, Auerbach was regarded as a junior reporter with news-breaking skills, once mounting a horse in regional Australia to get to a remote bush camp of an incest family.
In early 2014, Auerbach revealed he had been close with high-profile former model turned Australia's Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson prior to her tragic death in February of that year.
In the same year he worked briefly for Daily Mail Australia, before returning to News Corp and later working at Nine's A Current Affair as a reporter, covering stories involving neighbour disputes, terrorists, a Fijian jail inmate and sports stars.
In 2019, Auerbach assisted Steve Jackson, then a reporter for The Australian, in securing an interview with the ex-model and onetime fiancé of billionaire James Packer, Tziporah Malkah.
The interview took place at
