Australians, including Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, reveal their weirdest phobias they suffer from

Australian people have shared their bizarre phobias – including tiny clustered holes, swinging objects, velvet and even tomato sauce.

Sydney-based radio host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson kicked off the conversation by telling her KIIS 1065 co-host Kyle Sandilands that she had to look away every time she pushed her daughter Kitty on the swings.

‘I can’t watch her swing. I have this fear of swinging objects. Like I can’t look at them, it makes me have butterflies in my tummy, it’s called pendulaphobia,’ Jackie said.

‘So boxing bags, a ceiling fan, when someone knocks into a chandelier and it starts swinging… I almost want to throw up. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it.

‘It’s not the fear of the falling, it’s just the uneasiness of looking at something swing.’

And Jackie wasn’t the only one with an irrational fear, as many shared their strangest phobias you didn’t even know existed.

Adam – who works with the radio duo – revealed his fear of bananas.

‘I used to like them as a kid. I can look at them, touch them but as soon as I smell it, I gag,’ Adam said, adding he has to leave a room when someone gets a banana.

Mayo said she was afraid of tiny holes and clusters of circles.

‘Even the new iPhone with the three camera holes freak me out. I can’t have someone show me their phone, I feel sick.’ she said.

‘And having abnormal holes in like clusters, if I see a bunch of pimples, it makes me sick and at the beach when the little [crabs] goes into the sand, nah.’

Listener Nicole said she’s ‘petrified’ of tomato sauce following a childhood trauma. 

‘I never liked tomato sauce. When I was about six, it was my turn to wash the dishes and my brother thought it’d be funny to empty the entire bottle in the bottom of the sink and you can’t see because of the bubbles on top of the water,’ she said.

‘I just put my hands straight in there… now the smell of it makes me feel sick.’

One Sydney man said he’d rather drag his fingers along concrete than touch velvet (file image)

Jodie said she couldn’t eat ice cream if it was served to her on a ‘paddle-pop stick’ because she had a fear of the wooden popsicle sticks.

‘I’m not looking at them, I’m not touching them. I hate any paddle-pop sticks, it freaks me out. We have to buy non-stick ice creams,’ she said.

Abraham said he considered himself as a ‘fearless guy most of the time’ but he had a severe fear of velvet.

‘I swear to God if I see or even touch velvet or anything that feels like velvet, I turn into the biggest piece of s*** I’ve ever seen,’ he said.

‘It’s the most disgusting and filthy thing. It gets to a point where if I touch velvet by accident or someone who gets me to touch it because they know I hate it, I’d rather drag my fingers along concrete, it’s disgusting.

‘I’m too scared to even investigate the name of the phobia. I just don’t want to look it up on Wikipedia and see a patch of velvet.’