*This article discusses mental health, bullying and harrassment*
Have you ever felt like you have no power, or agency, in your personal or professional life?
Our bodies tend to have an embedded fight, flight, freeze or fawn response to real, perceived or imagined danger. Those dangers are not necessarily physical, they can be a response to bullying, verbal harrassment and gaslighting.
The Merriam-Webster definition of gaslighting is psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.
It is insidious in that it builds gradually, isn’t necessarily obvious to others and leaves the individual involved second guessing their words, actions and behaviour too.
At the end of last week I spent a long time going through the amended defence, filed in the Federal Court, by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation Pty Ltd (ARN) against Jacqueline Henderson, better known to listeners as Jackie O.
In it, ARN have rejected Jackie O’s characterisation of discussions and correspondence about being bullied by Kyle Sandilands in the KIIS FM workplace.
ARN says Jackie tried to leverage the Fair Work Act to get a different show.
The ARN defence says Jackie’s motive was not “to demand or encourage CBC to comply with that [Fair Work] legislation” but to “use the existence of the purported entitlement to seek to force CBC not to hold Ms Henderson and Henderson Media to the services that they were contractually bound to provide” by her contract.
ARN denies that it was “contractually obliged to provide” Jackie with another shift, citing the original contract documents that specifically refer to the KIIS FM Kyle and Jackie O show.
The ARN defence also says that, “by 23 February 2026, Ms Henderson had already ‘resolved’ to perform on another show, at a different time of the day” and that “the Complaint Letter…was inconsistent with the proposition that Ms Henderson… would ever provide the services that they were contractually bound to provide.”
ARN says the statement in the Complaint Letter that Jackie “reserved the right to make a report to SafeWork NSW was not done in good faith and for a proper purpose” of the Fair Work Act. ARN says the complaint letter was to “force CBC not to hold Ms Henderson… to the services that they were contractually bound to provide…and instead to provide Ms Henderson…with an alternative daypart.”
Additionally, ARN acknowledged that if the alleged bullying had been addressed through SafeWork NSW, Jackie ‘would (or at least, may) have had to continue to provide services on a breakfast show with Mr Sandilands’.
There was an acknowlegdement that Henderson Media and Quasar (Kyle’s organisation) respectively were solely responsible for controlling the manner in which they provided Program Services under each respective agreement.
And, Jackie would perform the show ‘at their sole risk and CBC will not be liable to Henderson Media or Ms Henderson for any loss, damage or injury sustained by them.’
ARN had contractually allowed Kyle and Jackie to operate with complete autonomy over their words and actions. The ARN documents appear to be now working to absolve themselves of responsibility once Kyle’s words and actions made Jackie say she could no longer continue to work with him.
In the last month additional pieces of information have come to light about the escalation of Kyle Sandilands, once the show launched into Melbourne.
Duncan Campbell is the former ARN Chief Content Officer who brought Kyle and Jackie over to the network from SCA, walked alongside them during the heights of their power in Sydney and was part of the CEO and Chairman’s team that led to the $200 million contract. He was shifted to a consultancy role at the start of 2025, nine months after the show’s doomed launch into Melbourne.
In June the shackles were removed, once he was out of contract, with some of his on the record comments further fuel to the impression that no one was able to impact or control Kyle’s behaviour.
Of the Melbourne launch, on the Game Changers Radio podcast, Duncan said:
“I’d spoken to Kyle on Friday and talked about, ‘let’s just go easy on Monday,’ and he was all for that. But something happened between Friday and Monday.”
Then no one spoke to Kyle about it for a further five months:
“That was probably the one big failing. We eventually did talk to him, but that was around September or October.
“In hindsight, we should have actually spoken to him earlier.”
By then the MFW had already galvanised. I dare say it was why they spoke to him.
Targetting the advertisers was hitting ARN and the show where it hurt.
Jackie started to sense that things were not the same behind the scenes as they once were.
In October 2024 she released her book, The Whole Truth, including details of a period in rehab in the Betty Ford Clinic in 2022. The announcement on air had several little digs from Kyle, including that he hadn’t read the book. I get that Kyle isn’t a reader, but to state that, during Jackie’s moment, was rude and belittling.
In March 2025, while a speaker at Radiodays Europe, sans Kyle, Jackie said she could and would walk away from the contract if it felt inauthentic and was no longer rewarding. At the end of the year she added on air that she’d move to Italy and leave radio once the ten year contract was up. Kyle, in response, said he’d die in the chair.
There also had been an incident, mentioned in the court documents, on or around September 16, 2025. The aftermath, which resulted in multiple emails between Gemma O’Neill, Jackie’s manager and best friend, and then Chief Audience and Content Officer Lauren Joyce, was that there was ‘no further outcome to be required‘ in December. That chain of events, emails and people involved, will likely see its day in court.
On the day that the show imploded, February 20, 2026, this was part of the conversation on air:
Kyle:I’m not married to you. I don’t have to buy into all this backwards and forwards …
Jackie:… I do my job and I do it well.
Kyle: I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that lately, no. I wouldn’t agree.
Jackie:Well, you know what? You get someone else then.
And:
Jackie: Tell me one spot in the show where I’ve been off with the fairies, not knowing what’s going on?
Just one person to back it up and give an example.
Kyle: No one’s going to say anything. Not one of them’s going to say anything. They’re all too terrified.
Jackie: Terrified of me?
Kyle: Not of you, terrified of getting involved. Not of you.
The two who spoke up after the above interaction, Pete Deppeler (who was shut down by Kyle) and Brooklyn Ross, have remained with ARN and not shifted to join Kyle and his new venture.
The audio that day (which is in the story above) featured all the trauma responses, freeze, fight, fawn (in the other staff called into to respond) and finally Jackie’s initiation of flight.
The show censors will also have stopped certain audio going to air and there are the assertions in Jackie’s court documents that ARN did not implement any control measures to minimise the risk of bullying and that she had received complaints from listeners about the “abusive relationship” taking place between the pair.
Can ARN be found liable for damages sustained by Jackie O to her wellbeing if the contract says she (and Kyle respectively) was solely responsible for controlling the manner in which they provided Program Services? That’s the crux of the matter. With Jackie still resolutely silent, except through legal channels, this amendment seems a further push for settlement. But one that sits uncomfortably around responsibility.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.