Kyle Sandilands has sensationally blasted News Corp after a journalist called for him to be sacked from KIIS FM for making ‘dangerous’ statements about his mental health issues on-air.
Appearing on Wednesday’s The Kyle And Jackie O Show, the 48-year-old radio star branded a News.com.au columnist ‘disgraceful’ for suggesting that he should be ‘pulled off air for a psychological assessment’.
News Corp – which owns 15 per cent of KIIS FM – published the article after Kyle revealed his private battle with ‘sadness’ on Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes.
‘You make me sick’: Kyle Sandilands, 48, has unleashed on News Corp after a columnist called for him to be taken off air for ‘offending people with mental health issues’
A day later, Kyle joked that he regretted coming out with his mental illness, because he was sick of being bombarded with messages of support from friends.
The News Corp journalist subsequently reported that Kyle’s actions had ‘trivialised mental health and pilloried those who had reached out to offer him support in the wake of his vulnerability.’
Describing the article to his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, Kyle raged: ‘A stranger that I’ve never met… has come out and told me that I should be pulled off air for a mental assessment.
‘Are you saying that anyone with a mental illness has no right to work?’ Kyle admitted he was extremely rattled when he read the article on Tuesday night
‘I haven’t even had time to figure out myself, what is going on with me. I don’t think I’ve got mental illness, but maybe I do,’ he continued, before directing a question at the journalist: ‘Are you saying that anyone with a mental illness has no right to work?’
Kyle admitted he was extremely rattled when he read the article on Tuesday night.
‘It really disturbed me when I read it. Like, I lay in bed for hours, just wondering what is wrong with me… Why am I being shamed for saying that I feel sad?’ he said.
‘I find the whole thing twisted to turn me into some kind of monster I’m actually not!’ Kyle also took umbrage at a particular sentence written by the journalist insinuating that his mental health issues weren’t genuine
‘Waking up to a headline saying “Sandilands should be taken off air”, and the reason is the columnist didn’t like the way I spoke about what I was going through, just makes me second guess everything in life,’ he later added.
Kyle was also outraged by a particular sentence written by the journalist insinuating that his mental health issues weren’t authentic.
The sentence read: ‘In just 48 hours Sandilands has… offended those suffering genuine illness’.
Raw interview: News Corp published the article after Kyle revealed his private battle with ‘sadness’ on Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes
Shocked that the writer would question the veracity of his mental health admission, Kyle fumed: ‘For the first time in my whole life I opened up and dealt with something really painful and serious to me. And she’s questioning whether it’s even real.
‘I find the whole thing twisted to turn me into some kind of monster I’m actually not!’ he exclaimed.
Kyle also blasted the journalist for failing to report that he was joking when he said, ‘My message is, when you’re feeling sad, tell no-one,’ on Tuesday’s show.
‘Dishonest and it’s misleading’: Kyle also blasted the journalist for failing to report that he was joking when he said, ‘My message is, when you’re feeling sad, tell no-one,’ on Tuesday’s show
Instead of acknowledging that the obviously light-hearted statement was made in jest, the writer branded the host ‘careless’ and ‘out of touch’.
‘It’s dishonest and it’s misleading to her readers to take something that was clearly a joke and turn it into some kind of fact,’ raged Kyle.
‘She didn’t say that I was joking, she’s trying to portray to her readers I was trying to tell everyone for real, don’t communicate your sadness or your sickness.’
Leaked: Kyle also slammed the publication for publishing leaked private texts between himself and ex-girlfriend Imogen Anthony sent after their split last year. Pictured: Kyle Sandilands and ex-girlfriend Imogen Anthony
He also slammed the publication for publishing leaked private texts between himself and ex-girlfriend Imogen Anthony sent after their split last year.
Kyle revealed that his lawyers previously contacted News Corp to warn them that publishing the texts could end in disaster.
‘I had my lawyer ring News Corp and say, “Hey, there’s mental health issues at play here but there’s other people,” he said.
‘There’s multiple people involved in these stories’: Kyle revealed that his lawyers previously contacted News Corp to warn them that publishing these texts could end in disaster. Pictured: Kyle Sandilands and ex-girlfriend Imogen Anthony
‘There’s family members, there’s multiple people involved in these stories, and some have serious mental health issues,’ he continued, adding: ‘We let them know, on no uncertain terms, you’re rolling the dice on someone’s life.’
News Corp chose to publish the text messages anyway.
Refusing to pull any punches, Kyle finished his rant by accusing News Corp of ‘gross misconduct’.
‘I know that News Corp owns 15 per cent of this company, and I wish that I could buy your 15 per cent back, because working for you makes me sick,’ he said.
‘You are a disgraceful company and you know that people’s health, mental health and life is at stake and you just decided to run your little scandalous articles anyway.
‘It’s just a gross misconduct of journalistic privilege.’
‘You are a disgraceful company’: Refusing to pull any punches, Kyle finished his rant by accusing News Corp of ‘gross misconduct’