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Kyle Sandilands reveals urgent brain surgery: 'I might be dead'

'If you just tuned in after all these years, lap it up. And if you’re in Melbourne, you may get your wish - I might be dead.'

By Natasha LeePublished Feb 3, 2025
3 min read
Screenshot 2025 02 03 at 8.09.25 am

Radio giant Kyle Sandilands has dropped a bombshell on his KIIS FM breakfast show, The Kyle and Jackie O show, revealing he's set for immediate brain surgery after being diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.

The 53-year-old shared the news with listeners, saying doctors told him the condition requires urgent attention.

He announced: "On Friday, I was told by my medical team, which sounds like I’m already very sick, to have a medical team, that I have a brain aneurysm and it requires immediate attention, brain surgery.

Kyle and Jackie O Kyle and Jackie O

"If you just tuned in after all these years, lap it up. And if you’re in Melbourne, you may get your wish - I might be dead," Sandilands said, keeping things darkly comedic despite the serious diagnosis.

Sandilands co-host Henderson urged him to "think positive," to which he replied: "That doesn’t work in real life."

Explaining the condition, he compared it to a "bike tire with a big bubble", warning that if it bursts, he could end up "a vegetable in a wheelchair, or dead."

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"It’s not a blockage. It’s like, imagine your blood vessel is the garden hose, and the garden hose is weak and it blisters out like a big bubble, you know, like a puncture in it, like a bike tire with a big bubble that bubbles the aneurysm, so it’s not blocked," he said.

Kyle Sandilands. Kyle Sandilands announced on his KIIS FM breakfast show that he needs surgery for a brain aneurysm.

Sandilands was absent from the show last week, now revealing his medical team had been investigating persistent headaches. "The headaches that come ... and I can be here for a week and then bang, it could be any day of the week, on the weekend," he said.

He is expected to be off-air for up to eight weeks as he undergoes surgery. "They might go in keyhole, or they might have to cut open my skull - either way, I’ll be out for a bit," he said.

It's not the first time Sandilands' health has made the headlines.

This latest scare comes as the radio giant behind the duo, The Australian Radio Network (ARN), continue to defend their decision to sign the pair on a $200m talent deal, despite their lacklustre debut in Melbourne.

By the end of 2024, the show continued to struggle in Melbourne, finishing the year in eighth spot with just a 5% market share.

Time will tell if this new drama will play any part in their planned continued push to take their show national.

Pictured: Kyle Sandilands

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