Yesterday, March 9, ABC’s Media Watch waded into Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson’s professional breakdown. Two things of note within were some audio pulled from the last day that Jackie was on air with Kyle, on Friday February 20:
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, that there have been 3000 media mentions of the pair since then, including a fair few in this radio industry publication. More than for the US, Israel and Iran conflict situation, I suspect.
Kyle and Jackie haven’t spoken on the record about the situation to anyone, with the exception of Kyle’s phone conversation with Radioinfo’s Steve Ahern on March 2, the day before ARN announced via an ASX statement that Jackie O has given notice that she could no longer work with Kyle, but didn’t resign as she clarified in a later statement issued through her manager and best friend Gemma O’Neill.
Kyle released a statement shortly after this story was written which you can read here.
I went back and re-read Jackie’s book, The Whole Truth (pictured).
That had been a sticking point on February 20 as well. Jackie said she hadn’t watched Australian Idol, the show on which Kyle is currently one of the judges, and he returned to last night after a week off, alluding to the relationship breakdown in some of his comments.
Jackie said she didn’t feel bad about it because Kyle hadn’t read her book. Kyle said if ever he actually read a book hers would be his first choice. Then when questioned about his lack of interest in Jackie’s time in rehab, Kyle proceeded to take the mickey out of all of it. As he did, on reflection, the day that Jackie first revealed the rehab stay when she shared an excerpt of the book live on air back in October 2024.
That period changed Jackie and led to an accountability for her life, feelings and actions. The drug taking and social isolation didn’t happen all of a sudden, but rather were the gradual results of various external factors like Covid, her marriage breakdown and the pressures of maintaining a No 1 breakfast show and hours.
Back when the book was released, the show was teetering in Melbourne six months after its launch. It has remained No 1 FM or overall in Sydney but now The ACMA and MFW were coming for their content and advertisers. By pushing the boat out so hard in the first-place significant groups of people made it clear that the show and its stars weren’t capable of change.
The Whole Truth outlines some of the many behind the scenes activities that Jackie would do to build radio shows she was a part of. With Ugly Phil she had created a gossip magazine that she painstakingly compiled and would ask every caller if they wanted an exclusive copy of. She would spend hours putting it together and then posting it off, gradually building a show fan and database.
Then there was the move to breakfast on 2DayFM, one that Jackie credits to Kyle’s non-stop pushing while also acknowledging that “the higher ups were worried about me going into breakfast, because they felt I wasn’t a strong enough woman. Apparently I wasn’t opinionated enough.”
That pissed her off, then and now. That pissed me off too. I doubt I am the only woman working in media or radio who hasn’t been told the same thing at one point (or two) in our careers.
Jackie would go on to say that she didn’t want to respond inauthentically to things Kyle did or said just because someone else expected it. She also talks about how incredibly important it was to Kyle that they weren’t bitching behind each other’s backs. One time in their early days when Kyle was going through a rough patch and holed up and broadcasting from the US, he misinterpreted Jackie’s muting of his mic as evidence that she was. That took some recovering from.
Taking that into account you can see why Kyle saying on air that he had talked with people at the station behind her back, about her work, would have rankled so much.
Kyle and Jackie might earn the same, huge salaries beyond what most of us can comprehend, but this was the first time Kyle called into question Jackie’s value and contribution. Publicly.
Last week saw the release of wage gap data in the media industry. There is still so much to be done so that we might be paid the same as a man doing exactly the same job.
Then, there is feeling valued for what we contribute.
There is a fascinating study done in 2006 where a behavioural scientist, Professor Nicholas Epley, asked his group of researchers what percentage of work they contributed to a psychology journal article. When he tallied the numbers, it came to 140%, showing that people involved were feeling like they did slightly more than others.
Some exceptional employees have left because they were paid less than their equal colleague. Others because they were paid the same but felt like they were doing more. Although I don’t believe it is what Kyle meant, his words on February 20 created an imbalance between him and Jackie about their workload that has never been there before.
Sometimes you can steady that ship. Sometimes you can’t. Whether this is a sway or a topple, we will find out.
Kyle released a statement shortly after this story was written which you can read here.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Opinions are her own.
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“I want to be on air.” Kyle Sandilands releases statement after on-air bust up with Jackie O