Radio host Kyle Sandilands sparked fears for his welfare on Wednesday when he didn’t show up for work at Sydney’s top-rating Kyle and Jackie O breakfast program.
The KIIS FM star, 49, who has a history of health problems, offered no explanation for his absence and his colleagues couldn’t contact him because his phone was turned off – something Sandilands rarely does.
His longtime co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson and newsreader Brooklyn Ross sounded genuinely worried about him when they opened the show at 6am.
Concerns: Kyle Sandilands sparked fears for his welfare on Wednesday when he didn’t show up for his usual shift at Sydney’s top-rating breakfast radio program, The Kyle and Jackie O Show
They explained he hadn’t called ahead to say he wouldn’t be at work and his phone was dead. Sandilands’ friend and manager, Bruno Bouchet, also wasn’t picking up.
Henderson and Ross sent a KIIS FM producer, John Nicholson, to Sandilands’ house in Sydney’s eastern suburbs to see if he was okay.
Nicholson, who was broadcasting the welfare check live on air, arrived at the home Sandilands shares with his girlfriend, Tegan Kynaston, at about 6:25am and entered using a spare key.
Sandilands’ dogs weren’t barking and no one responded when Nicholson called out.
Worrying: The KIIS FM star, 49, who has a history of health problems, offered no explanation for his absence and his colleagues couldn’t contact him because his phone was turned off – something Sandilands rarely does. Pictured with his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson
For several agonising minutes, Henderson and the team feared the worst.
But at 6:29am, Sandilands’ voice could be heard weakly calling out from his bedroom and he confirmed he was alive and well.
‘Hello,’ he said, seeming surprised to find Nicholson in his house.
‘Slept in, didn’t I? I don’t know [if my phone died]. I just woke up. I don’t know what happened.’
No joke: His longtime co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson (right) and newsreader Brooklyn Ross (centre) sounded genuinely worried about him when they opened the show at 6am
When asked if he was going to work, Sandilands said he ‘might as well give it a miss, we’re halfway through,’ even though it was only half past six.
He then agreed to come to the KIIS FM studio in North Ryde to finish the day’s broadcast.
Sandilands’ manager, Mr Bouchet, later downplayed the seriousness of the incident.
‘We might need to get him a new phone – that Blackberry doesn’t seem to be very reliable!’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted KIIS FM for further comment.
Welfare check: Henderson and Ross sent a producer, John Nicholson, to check on Sandilands (right) at the eastern suburbs home he shares with his girlfriend, Tegan Kynaston (left)
When Sandilands eventually arrived at work in his Bentley shortly before 7am, he was met with cheers by a group of producers.
The staff looked visibly emotional and on the verge of tears in an Instagram Live video as Sandilands reassured them: ‘You thought I was dead? I’m not dead!’
Despite laughing off the situation, it seems many at KIIS FM genuinely feared the radio presenter had died in his sleep.
Relief: When Sandilands eventually arrived at work in his Bentley shortly before 7am, he was met with cheers by a group of producers. The staff looked visibly emotional and on the verge of tears as Sandilands reassured them: ‘You thought I was dead? I’m not dead!’
Sandilands, who lived rough on the streets as a teenager before becoming a multi-millionaire media titan, spent decades mistreating his body and makes no secret of his various health problems.
He revealed in an October 2019 interview that he was starting to take better care of himself on doctors’ orders, and had stopped drinking excessively and taking drugs.
‘Now, if I did one line, I’d be dead in five seconds,’ he said at the time.
‘I was like a teenage boy my entire life, and that caught up with me… so that had to get sorted out.’
Sandilands had used cocaine and marijuana ‘on and off’ over the years, before deciding to completely cut them out of his life.
‘I’ve still got high blood pressure and I’m still on medication like a mess,’ he added.
In May last year, Sandilands weighed himself on air and revealed he was 146kg – sixteen kilograms heavier than the last time he’d weighed himself.
Health woes: Sandilands, who lived rough on the streets as a teenager before becoming a multi-millionaire media titan, spent decades mistreating his body and makes no secret of his various health problems. Pictured with Henderson on July 23, 2009, in Sydney
‘Yep, I’ve gone up a bit!’ he said at the time. ‘I’ve gone from 130kg to 146kg… I haven’t done a s**t yet, mind you.’
Back in 2017, Sandilands was warned by a psychic that he was ‘going to die of a heart attack’ the following year.
While the psychic didn’t specify that his death would be weight related, she did warn him to get a calcium score test done on his heart.
A calcium score test measures the calcium in your arteries to determine the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
In 2014, obesity specialist Dr Edward Jackowski warned that Sandilands would die young because of his weight and lifestyle.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show has dominated the airwaves in Sydney for two decades.
Sandilands is widely regarded as one of Australia’s most prolific and talented broadcasters and is considered his country’s answer to Howard Stern.
Celebrated: The Kyle and Jackie O Show has dominated the airwaves in Sydney for two decades. Sandilands is widely regarded as one of Australia’s most prolific and talented broadcasters and is considered his country’s answer to Howard Stern. Pictured in June 2008