The Australian Radio Network (ARN) has taken the Kyle and Jackie O Show off air with immediate effect, accusing Kyle Sandilands of serious misconduct after co-host Jackie Henderson said she could no longer work with him.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, ARN said Henderson had given notice that she “cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands”. Her contract, signed in 2023 for a decade of breakfast shows and worth $100m, has been terminated just two years in.
ARN added that it had written to Sandilands stating that his behaviour amounted to an act of serious misconduct in breach of its services agreement. He has been taken off air for 14 days and must remedy the alleged breach or face the end of his contract.
The breakdown follows an on-air spat on 20 February, when Sandilands mocked Henderson's interest in astrology. Henderson has not presented the show since, and speculation about her future came to a head with Tuesday's announcement that the partnership – the most lucrative in Australian media – was over.
ARN said it had offered Henderson the possibility of an alternative show on its network. The pair had been Australia's most successful on-air duo for more than 20 years, drawing an audience of 1.5 million before their $200m 2023 deal extended the show from Sydney to Melbourne.
The programme has previously attracted scrutiny from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which last year investigated the KIIS network over vulgar and sexually explicit content. The regulator found seven breaches of decency rules and breaches of complaint handling rules across stations in Sydney and Melbourne.
