KIIS FM radio's Kyle and Jackie O split after decades of controversies

Jackie "O" Henderson has quit Australia's highest-paying radio show, and her co-host Kyle Sandilands has been suspended following an explosive tirade during a live broadcast.

Henderson had not co-hosted KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O Show since being berated by Sandilands on February 20 as "being off with the fairies".

During the episode, Sandilands criticised Henderson for her fixation on horoscopes while discussing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, claiming they made her "almost unworkable".

The seven-minute-long exchange, which Henderson described as an attack, led to the program being taken off the air on Tuesday and resulted in a 14-day suspension and potential contract termination for Sandilands.

With a broadcast partnership spanning 25 years, Henderson and Sandilands were the undisputed king and queen of the Sydney airwaves.

An unlikely dynamic between the pair gave the show its edge, with Sandilands the shock jock and Henderson the voice of reason to reel him in.

But for fans who found the show funny, outrageous and daring, there were times it went a step too far.

The lie detector stunt

Graphic sexual content was a theme that first saw the duo taken off the airwaves in 2009.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show was found to have breached guidelines during a lie-detector segment where Sandilands asked a teenager who had been raped about her sexual experience.

The girl's mother had called into the show wanting to know if her daughter had experience with sex and drugs.

Sandilands and Henderson apologised on air following the incident, saying they had not been told the girl had been assaulted and denying claims the interview had been staged.

The urination game and 'vulgar' content

In 2025, the chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) chastised the program for its "vulgar, sexually explicit and deeply offensive" content.

Last October, Nerida O'Loughlin said the ACMA was considering enforcement actions so that network ARN would be forced to "rein in" the highly paid stars after they were found to have breached seven decency rules.

In one breach, audience members took part in a game where they listened to audio of urinating staff members and were asked to guess whether they were male or female.

Other indecency instances related to "graphic comments" made about menstruation and oral sex, offensive descriptions of sexual positions, and a segment discussing masturbation and pornographic websites.

In total, the ACMA found the program had breached the Commercial Radio Code of Practice on 12 occasions in 2025.

Mushroom trial scandal

The pair had even found themselves narrowly escaping prosecution over on-air comments made during the trial of triple-murderer Erin Patterson.

During a news segment about the case last June, Sandilands took to the airwaves on KIIS FM to say "lock that b***h up".

The comments were condemned by the Patterson trial judge, Christopher Beale, who urged all commentators at the time "to engage their brains before they open their mouths".

Patterson, who was eventually found guilty of murdering three relatives and trying to poison another with a toxic beef Wellington, had maintained her innocence at the trial.

Future in doubt

In an ASX announcement on Tuesday, ARN Media said it had issued a written notice to Sandilands, saying it considered his behaviour last week "an act of serious misconduct".

Henderson gave notice that "she cannot continue to work with Mr Sandilands" and will cease co-hosting.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show was immediately taken off air, and Sandilands was suspended for 14 days.

In 2023, Henderson and Sandilands signed a deal with KIIS FM that would have earned them $100 million each over 10 years.

Previously, The Kyle and Jackie O Show had also been a ratings success for Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) in 2005, when the program ran on Sydney's 2Day FM.