‘There nothing else I can do or say’: A remorseful Kyle Sandilands apologises for his ‘joke’ about the Virgin Mary on air – as he admits he offended his own FRIENDS and has lost loyal listeners
Kyle Sandilands has issued a heartfelt apology for his controversial ‘joke’ about the Virgin Mary, telling listeners of The Kyle and Jackie O Show he deeply regrets what he said.
Earlier this month, the 48-year-old radio presenter outraged Christian and Muslim groups by saying the Virgin Mary wasn’t actually a virgin and had fallen pregnant ‘behind a camel shed’.
After issuing a statement through his PR team, and apologising for a second time when confronted by paparazzi outside his Los Angeles home last week, Kyle addressed his listeners directly for the first time on Monday.
Speaking out: Kyle Sandilands has issued a heartfelt apology for his controversial ‘joke’ about the Virgin Mary, telling listeners of The Kyle and Jackie O Show he deeply regrets what he said
Kyle addressed the ‘elephant in the room’ shortly after 6am, telling listeners he wanted to clear things up after the Virgin Mary controversy had dominated headlines during the September non-ratings period.
He began with a heartfelt apology, saying he didn’t realise the gravity of what he’d said until his phone number was leaked online and began receiving angry phone calls from religious people.
He said that some callers were ‘aggro’, others were threatening but most were just listeners who were simply ‘disappointed’ by his comments.
Kyle said that the incident had been enlightening for him as he didn’t realise he’d ‘stepped on the beliefs of other people’ until listeners had contacted him directly.
‘I didn’t realise the gravity of it. I upset a lot of people,’ he said. ‘Even friends of mine were like, “Bro how could you say something so dumb like that?”‘
More to come.