Radio host Jackie O is taking time off from her KIIS FM breakfast show following a heated on-air confrontation with her longtime co-host Kyle Sandilands last week.
Sandilands confirmed Jackie O’s absence at the start of Monday morning’s broadcast on KIIS FM, telling listeners she had requested a short break.
“You might notice Jackie is not here,” he said on air. “I spoke with her yesterday. She wants a couple of days off to gather her thoughts.”
Sandilands added that the pair had only communicated via text message over the weekend, rather than speaking directly by phone.
The development follows a tense exchange on Friday’s show, when Sandilands criticised Jackie O live on air, accusing her of being “off with the fairies” and “unfocused” at work due to what he described as an obsession with star charts.
A star chart, also known as a birth chart, maps the position of planets at the time of a person’s birth and is commonly used in astrology to interpret personality traits and life patterns.
“Your fixation on this has made you almost unworkable,” Sandilands said during the broadcast. “You are off with the fairies with this sh*t. It’s mental.”
A visibly stunned Jackie O responded that she was offended by the comments, but Sandilands continued, saying her alleged lack of focus was affecting the show.
“It’s too much. It’s affecting everything else,” he said. “Every segment, every time you’ve spoken, you don’t even know what’s going on.”
Jackie O rejected the criticism, while Sandilands claimed others at the radio station shared his concerns.
“You are not doing the rest of the job and everyone in this building has mentioned it to me,” he said. “Everyone has said, ‘what’s going on with Jackie? She’s off today.’”
The exchange became emotional, with Jackie O fighting back tears as she accused Sandilands of launching a personal attack.
“I would never say things like that about you,” she said. “To say ‘you don’t know what the F is going on, you’re not doing your job,’ that’s an attack and I wouldn’t do that.”
Sandilands dismissed the claim, replying, “It’s not an attack, it’s an actual fact, babe, I’m sorry.”
Jackie O maintained she was performing her role professionally, saying, “I come in here and I do my job and I do it well,” but Sandilands responded, “I wouldn’t say that lately, no.”
The argument ended with Jackie O suggesting Sandilands should consider hosting the show with someone else if he was unhappy with her performance.
“Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Sandilands replied. “I didn’t say you’re not very good, I said you’re off with the fairies, you are unfocused, you don’t give a sh*t.”
Despite the confrontation, the pair remained on air together for a further hour, though the tension between them was evident. Jackie O’s brief absence comes as one of the most public rifts in the duo’s long-running on-air partnership.
Images: KIIS FM
