Kyle Sandilands has offered a rare glimpse into his personal life and how he is really feeling about his shock brain aneurysm diagnosis.
The radio star announced the shock news about his health at the beginning of his KIIS FM breakfast show back in February.
He warned listeners at the time that ‘a life of cocaine abuse and partying are not the way to go’.
In a no-holds-barred chat with Daily Mail Australia, Kyle said that after years of partying hard, he’s now finally focusing on health and spending time with wife Tegan Kynaston and their young son Otto.
He admitted the reality of the diagnosis forced him to make some major lifestyle changes.
‘I’ve gotta have the blood pressure under control. I can’t be yahooing around on the bags and staying up for three days, which obviously I haven’t been doing for a few years since Otto’s been born,’ he said.
Kyle Sandilands has offered a rare glimpse into his personal life and how he is really feeling about his shock brain aneurysm diagnosis
‘And the cigarettes are no good and everything that I love is no good.’
‘I’ve abused my body my entire life’
Despite the health scare, Kyle insists he is not frightened, but more so angry.
‘I’m more annoyed and a bit bored about the whole thing. But yeah, not scared,’ he said.
‘I’ve just got a little son who’s about to turn three. And that was my only real concern and a young wife. And that was more concern for them than myself.
‘I’ve never really had a lot of concern for myself. As you can tell, I’ve abused my body my entire life and had a fun time doing it though.’
Kyle’s secret way to unwind
While he hasn’t indulged in cocaine in a long time, Sandilands does unwind with a joint after a long day juggling his KIIS FM breakfast show and Australian Idol filming schedule.
In a no-holds-barred chat with Daily Mail Australia, Kyle said that after years of partying hard, he’s now finally focusing on health and his time with wife Tegan Kynaston and son Otto
The 53-year-old KIIS FM breakfast host candidly spoke about his life away from the mic, revealing how welcoming son Otto in 2022 changed everything
‘I usually just smoke a big joint, but yeah, I don’t usually tell that many people that, but I’ll tell you.’
The 53-year-old KIIS FM breakfast host candidly spoke about his life away from the mic, revealing how welcoming son Otto in 2022 changed everything – including his infamous party lifestyle.
Slowing down
Kyle explained that severity of his condition has forced him to slow down and reconsider how he lives.
‘The health sh*t … There’s not much I can do. I’ve got the two aneurysms, one in the chest and one in the head. But they’re being monitored,’ he said.
‘When the head one first came out, they were like, immediately needs to be dealt with, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then when they looked in there and I got all the scans, they were like, “oh, it’s not that easy.”
‘If it was easy to deal with, a little coil or a clip, it’s two different procedures. They would’ve done it immediately, but because it’s attached to many different blood vessels, I actually have an 18% chance of a stroke just having the procedure.
‘They wanted to wait cause they said I might have had it for 30 years or five months. So they wanted to see if it grows over six months to 12 months.’
Kyle explained the severity of his condition, which forced him to slow down and reconsider how he lives
‘A change of perception about love’
Reflecting on fatherhood, Kyle said becoming a dad changed his outlook on life.
Reflecting on fatherhood, Kyle revealed how becoming a dad changed his outlook
‘A change of perception about what I thought love is and you hear everyone, “oh, you don’t know love until you’ve had a child.” And I just think, “you don’t know love until you’ve had three or four hotties in the bed together,”‘ he joked.
‘That’s what I used to think. But until you have that kid, I was like, “oh sh*t, they’re right.” Like it’s a different and unconditional you would die for that person.’
He also praised Tegan’s hands-on parenting style.
‘She’s a great mum. Even my mum was over the other day at our place and she goes, “Tegan’s so hands on with him. She’s on the ground.” She’s doing this relentless for hours and hours, playing, running, painting, just nonstop like a kindergarten teacher.
‘Mum said, “I wasn’t anything like that with you.” And I said, “Is that right? So what?” She goes, “oh, I didn’t even think you knew colours until year one.” Because Otto knows colours and words and all this, and I was like, how neglectful were parents in the 1970s?’
While he hasn’t indulged in cocaine in a long time, Sandilands does unwind with a joint after a long day juggling his KIIS FM breakfast show and Australian Idol filming schedule
The truth about Australian Idol and MAFS rivalry
The radio veteran, who returned to TV as a judge on Australian Idol, confirmed he’s already locked in for next year’s season – and he’s had a huge say over who joins him on the panel.
‘They’ve already booked in the dates for next year,’ he revealed.
‘So Marcia [Hines] says to me on the desk, “Did they tell you about the new dates?” And I went, “of course, they f**king told me about the new dates a month ago.”‘
When it comes to the judging lineup, Kyle didn’t hold back.
‘Yeah, of course. Where’s Harry Connick, Jr? Not here. Amy [Shark]’s here now. ‘Marcia’s here now,’ he said.
‘When we put this together Channel Seven CEO Jeff Howard came and met me. We had lunch and I knew that he was like romancing me to come back to TV, but I was done with TV.
Then he said, “I want you to come back to TV.” And I said, “I’m not really interested.” And he said, “what if we bring back Idol?” And I said, “oh. Very interested only in Idol.”‘
Kyle said the original judging panel nearly looked very different.
The radio veteran, who returned to TV as a judge on Australian Idol, confirmed he’s already locked in for next year’s season – and he’s had a huge say over who joins him on the panel (Pictured alongside Marcia Hines and Amy Shark)
The controversial host also addressed Australian Idol’s ratings battle with Channel Nine’s Married At First Sight and why he’s not been talking about MAFS on The Kyle & Jackie O Show
Kyle also took aim at the media’s obsession with radio ratings after KISS FM’s recent Melbourne numbers
‘It was gonna be me, Amy Shark, Meghan Trainor and Snoop Dogg. But Snoop was having some visa issues, then we nearly got 50 Cent, but he’s got film companies and stuff now so we couldn’t marry up the time.’
The controversial host also addressed Australian Idol’s ratings battle with Channel Nine’s Married At First Sight and why he’s not been talking about the Channel Nine show on The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
‘We talked about MAFS probably five years ago. I’m just not as into it. I know it’s still quite popular. Still though it [always] wins the night,’ he admitted.
‘I even brought it up with Channel Seven. I was like, “why would you put it up against Channel Nine’s biggest show?” And they said, “We’re not gonna just surrender and put episodes of Gilligan’s Island on we still need to have a sexy current cool product for their advertisers.”
‘A lot of people don’t want to advertise in MAFS because of the style of content of show.’
On ratings, rival networks and future plans
Kyle also took aim at the media’s obsession with radio ratings after KIIS FM’s recent Melbourne numbers.
‘I didn’t celebrate it. I thought it was f**ked,’ he said bluntly.
Kyle insisted he doesn’t let competition get in the way of friendship – revealing he’ll be catching up with former colleague Jason Hawkins (pictured with co-host Lauren Phillips) over dinner next week
‘This is what people don’t really understand about ratings. It’s out of the five and a half million people in Melbourne, only 18,000 have even been asked to fill in a diary.’
He also slammed reports he and co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson’s rumoured salary increase was responsible for presenter Mitch Churi’s departure.
‘I had nothing to do with Mitch got fired. His little insider from what I’ve heard, and I dunno if it’s completely true, but it probably is, it was just [his] negotiation style didn’t work.’
Looking to the future, Kyle admitted he’d like to expand into Brisbane but isn’t in any rush.
‘I’ve made my intentions clear that I do want Brisbane as well, but while Brisbane still does well, they went down a little bit, but there’s still got healthy numbers.’
When it comes to rival presenters, Kyle insisted he doesn’t let competition get in the way of friendship – revealing he’ll be catching up with former colleague Jason Hawkins over dinner next week.
‘I found him when he was like a 16-year-old kid. He used to be my little bitch at Triple M in Brisbane,’ he joked.
