A producer from The Kyle and Jackie O Show has gone to insane measures to secure an exclusive interview with Olympic breakdancer Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn.
Peter Deppeler, known as Intern Pete on the KIIS FM radio show, revealed on Friday morning he has called Raygun’s mother ‘Bev’ ‘over 600 times’.
He made the admission after host Kyle Sandilands began to blast the media for ‘harassing’ Raygun’s family and friends to get an interview with her.
Raygun released a statement to Instagram on Thursday addressing the hate she has received online since her zero-score breakdancing performance on the world stage.
In it, she asked the press ‘to please stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community and the broader street dance community’.
The following morning Kyle, 53, slammed ‘shonky media organisations’ for ‘harassing’ Raygun, only to discover one of his producers was among them.
‘What sort of an organisation would constantly bombard – who are they ringing? The friends the street community, the dancers, the mother?’ he raged.
At this point, Intern Pete, 40, cut in, saying: ‘Sorry. I want to dive in here. Now that you’ve sort of said it like that, I’m one of those people and I apologise for that.’
A producer from The Kyle and Jackie O Show has gone to insane measures to secure an exclusive interview with Olympic breakdancer Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn. Pictured: hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson
He revealed: ‘I’ve been trying to get Raygun on the show since the story broke. I’ve called her mum a lot. Like a really lot. Over 600 times.’
Stunned by the lengths his own producer went through to try and secure an interview, Kyle said: ‘Have you really rung that poor kid’s mother 600 times?’
‘Well, yeah we’ve got to get her on the show,’ Intern Pete said, to which Kyle replied: ‘You don’t ring the mother. You ring the representative.’
The producer added: ‘Well, I tried Samuel as well and I tried the broader breakdancing community and no one is answering.’
It comes just hours after Raygun issued a deeply personal message to the world after her disastrous performance at the Olympic Games made her a viral sensation.
The Australian failed to impress the judges in Paris as she writhed around the floor mimicking a snake, hopped like a kangaroo and performed the sprinkler.
Peter Deppeler, 40, (pictured) known as Intern Pete on the KIIS FM radio show, revealed on Friday morning he has called Raygun’s mother ‘Bev’ ‘over 600 times’
She has been widely mocked online, with some false rumours suggesting she won a spot in the inaugural breakdancing competition via a flawed selection process.
Now Raygun has broken her silence on her shocking performance, the online onslaught and the wild conspiracy theories surrounding it.
In the statement, she said: ‘Hi everyone, Raygun here. I just wanna start by thanking all the people who have supported me.
‘I really appreciate the positivity and I am glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives, that is what I had hoped.
‘I didn’t realise that that would also open the door to so much hate which has frankly been pretty devastating.
‘While I went out there and had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave it my all. Truly.
‘I’m honoured to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of breaking’s Olympic debut. What the other athletes have achieved has just been phenomenal.’
He made the admission after host Kyle Sandilands began to blast the media for ‘harassing’ Raygun’s family and friends to get an interview with her
‘In regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, I’d like to ask everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the AOC as well as the posts on the Ausbreaking Instagram page as well as the WDSF breaking for gold page,’ she continued.
‘Bit of a fun fact for you: there are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across all five criteria on Olympics.com, all the results are there.
‘I’m going to be in Europe for a few weeks, for some pre-planned downtime but I would really like to ask the press to please stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community and the broader street dance community. Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this, so I ask you to still respect their privacy.
‘I will be happy to answer more questions on my return to Australia.’
