In a wide-ranging interview KING KYLE drops a bombshell admission about the radio stunt that went wrong, why his old bosses hated him and the warning he gave KARL STEFANOVIC about the 60 Minutes story
Kyle Sandilands doesn’t do a lot of interviews, but today he appeared on The Ben, Rob & Robbo Show and nothing was off limits. So when the topic of his most controversial radio moment became a topic of discussion, Kyle was frank, honest and offered new information, including the fact the girl and mother have both told him to reveal the truth about what happened that day, rather than continue to protect them.
Sandilands copped plenty of flak when he and sidekick Jackie O put a 14 year old on a lie detector. The segment spun out of control when her mother asked about her sexual experience, to which the child revealed she had been raped.
There were instant calls for Sandilands to be sacked.
“I was under the assumption that poor girl was 21. Don’t forget I was in New Zealand operating out of the Sofitel Hotel on a ski holiday when that happened. I had no control of any buttons. On my sheet it said she was 21 and at no stage did anyone know she was gunna get asked that question”.
Sandilands then told Ben Norris, David Robinson and myself the media were desperately trying to find out the identity of the family;
“I could have said what the real situation was but the girl was 14”
“The media, once they sort of kicked me around a bit, they were like ‘we demand to know who she is’ and they started trying to find the girl and the mother. And I just said, “you know I could come out and say what the lie detector actually said when she said that, I could say the mum shouldn’t have asked that, I could have said what the real situation was but the girl was 14, so I chose, if someone’s gunna suffer over this it’s gunna be me, not a 14 year old kid”
Kyle says he has protected the family from media intrusion and the truth, despite the fact they have given him permission to tell all;
“I wasn’t going to throw a desperate confused, worried mother and a troubled 14 year old girl under the bus”
“And she’s made contact since, and the mother, and said ‘hey, like we see this comes up every now and then, you should say what happened, what really happened” and I just said “Nah”. I got blamed, I took it because it was my responsibility at the end of the day – it was my show and I wasn’t going to throw a desperate confused, worried mother and a troubled 14 year old girl under the bus.
“People think they know everything but they don’t really know anything. If you really knew what happened behind the scenes with that you’d think ‘maybe I should keep my mouth shut’, not just assume I know everything”.
While Kyle can be a protective friend, he can also be a powerful enemy – as his previous employer Southern Cross Austereo has found out. The new owners of the station got Kyle offside almost from the get-go;
“They sort of wanted to run this gigantic radio station and television network like it was a used car yard in the outer suburbs. Like lots of cigarettes and blokes talking and everyone does as they’re told. But we were like ‘woh, we’ve already got a sort of thing going on here’ and they pretty much said to us “we’re not going to re-sign you for only for a year because we think you’ve only got 5 years left in you”
Kyle and Jackie O promptly packed their bags and moved across to the newly created KIIS where they have solidly beaten their old station, which has seen multiple line-up changes (and formats) in breakfast.
Watch the full interview for more insights including his warning to Karl Stefanovic about that 60 Minutes interview and the emotional trauma he’s been suffering since childhood.
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