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It was a Wednesday like no other. 4 March 2026 marked the first day at KIIS FM without the Kyle and Jackie O Show.
Just hours earlier, ARN Media, the owner of the radio network, released a bombshell statement announcing that star host Jackie O Henderson had given notice that she “cannot continue to work” with her co-presenter Kyle Sandilands.
The development came days after an on-air feud between the pair saw Kyle accuse Jackie of being “fixated” with star charts, leaving her in tears.
“Ms Henderson will cease to present the Kyle and Jackie O show,” ARN said in a market announcement. “ARN has also offered to Ms Henderson the possibility of an alternative show on the ARN network.”
As the statement confirmed Kyle’s behaviour during the 20 February episode of the show was deemed “an act of serious misconduct”, it was announced that he was suspended and had 14 days to “remedy” the breach.
As a result, the breakfast show would be taken off-air “effective immediately”.
On Wednesday, Kent ‘Smallzy’ Small stepped in to host the slot normally filled by the Kyle and Jackie O Show.
“There’s a saying in showbiz that the show must go on,” he told shocked listeners.
“You’re all back to work today. You’re waking up living your life. My name is Smallzy. I am not here to replace either of them.
“I am just going to get us through… and as someone who has grown up listening to The Kyle and Jackie O Show, it is as much a shock to me as it would be to you hearing it.”
While neither Kyle nor Jackie has yet responded to the show being pulled from the air, Jackie did give an update on how she was feeling hours before the shock development was announced.
When approached by reporters as she left a sound healing session in Newtown in Sydney’s inner west on Tuesday, Jackie said she was “good!” and that she was “feeling healed” as she headed back to her car.
Radio insiders, however, tell Woman’s Day that back at KIIS FM, things are anything but healed.
“Everyone is walking around the corridors at KIIS in a complete daze – it’s so surreal after more than two decades that neither Kyle nor Jackie are in the building,” a source shares.
“It’s eerie and it’s so quiet! Normally with the breakfast team there’s plenty of noise – there’s none of the usual Kyle and his trademark outrageous antics while Jackie most days just rolled her eyes at her co-host’s brash and unpredictable on and off-air behaviour. It’s actually sad it has come to this.”
Behind the scenes, the source says the feud is being likened to “one of the biggest marriage bust ups in showbiz history”.
“They are like an old married couple who let their relationship breakdown play out live on air,” the insider says of Kyle and Jackie O. “And sadly it seems there’s been way too many hurtful things said for there to be any sort of reconciliation. You simply can’t come back from this.”
The mole also points to the “very awkward fact” that Jackie is godmother to Otto – Kyle’s three-year-old son with wife Tegan Kynaston – a position, they say, that is “almost an untenable arrangement now that all this has happened”.
“What many don’t know is Kyle became Jackie’s only daughter Kitty’s godfather back in 2022 when she was just 11 years old,” the source continues.
“He had asked Jackie to be godmother to Otto and, with Kitty present, he asked her if she would like him to be her godfather and she reportedly said yes!
“This has to be really hard on Kitty because she adores Kyle and Tegan and she treats Otto like her own little brother.
“There’s so many sad aspects in this fallout and it is going to impact a lot of people,” the insider adds. “ Kitty will be feeling the pressure too – she’s at that really vulnerable age of 15 when the kids at school will be all consumed by the bust up her mum has had with Kyle, who many believe is like a second dad to her.”
