Kyle Sandilands Takes Sick Day as Fallout from Explosive On-Air Clash with Jackie O Henderson Continues
Kyle Sandilands has taken a day off from his duties, as the repercussions from his fiery on-air argument with co-host Jackie O Henderson continue to reverberate through Sydney's top-rated breakfast radio program. ARN, the network behind the show, confirmed to media outlets that Sandilands was off sick on Thursday, leading the station to broadcast a highlights segment instead of a live episode.
The program typically relies on archived segments and highlight packages when hosts are on holiday. While it often proceeds with just one presenter, with Henderson already on leave until next week, there appeared to be little alternative but to pull content from the vault. Sandilands is currently managing significant health concerns after being diagnosed with a brain aneurysm in early 2025, followed by the discovery of a second chest aneurysm later. It remains unclear if his absence is directly related to these health issues, but the network has stated it expects Sandilands to return to the airwaves tomorrow.
Sandilands Addresses the Heated Argument and Denies Publicity Stunt Rumors
Kyle's absence comes just a day after he addressed last Friday's intense argument, which left Henderson in tears and prompted her to take time off to gather her thoughts. During his Wednesday show, Sandilands shut down rumors that the clash was a staged publicity stunt, laughing as he remarked, "We don't put that much effort into anything. We would never plan something like that."
Sandilands did concede that he could have handled the situation better, admitting he can sometimes be difficult. "I obviously upset her, and maybe in hindsight I shouldn't have said it on the air, but we say a lot of things on the air here," he said. "It's never meant to hurt her feelings, and obviously it did, and I regret hurting her feelings. No one wants to hurt someone, especially someone you care for."
Henderson is expected to return next Monday, but Sandilands expressed uncertainty about the resolution. "All any of us know is that she's asked for the week off and that's within her right to do," he explained. "I'm just leaving this up to management. I don't know what the plan is here or when it will be rectified or if it will be rectified. I hope it is. They asked me yesterday, 'What do you wanna do about it?' And I said, 'Well, the end result for me would be we're back on air, and everything's happy, but I want her to be happy and enjoy it, and I also want the same thing.'"
Details of the Tense Exchange That Sparked the Fallout
The pair, who have collaborated for over 25 years and host Sydney's number one FM breakfast show, became embroiled in a tense exchange last week. The conflict arose after Sandilands criticized Henderson's interest in astrology during a segment discussing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest. Sandilands initially took issue with what he described as Henderson's "fixation" on astrology, stating, "I don't mean to be rude, as I said fascinating, but I don't think it should be at the detriment of everything else on the show. It's affecting other things. Your fixation on this has made you almost unworkable."
He later accused Henderson of being "off with the fairies," to which she responded, "I'm totally offended by you saying something like that." Sandilands shot back, "Too bad if you are — that's the reality of what we're dealing with here." As the exchange escalated, Henderson became emotional, saying, "I would never say things like that about you. You make out like you're perfect, but there are so many things that you don't do, and I would never bring them up, and I would never say what people say. I don't want to get into a tit for tat, I think it's mean and nasty. I don't have a problem, but if I brought up the things people say." The argument concluded with Henderson telling her co-host to "get somebody else" after what she described as a "total attack."
