{"id":588262,"date":"2026-04-06T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588262\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:00:09","slug":"australian-idol-and-nova-fm-host-ricki-lee-coulter-reveals-health-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588262\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Idol and Nova FM host Ricki-Lee Coulter reveals health struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radio and Australian Idol<\/a> host Ricki-Lee Coulter has revealed a fresh health struggle.<\/p>\n

Two years after going public with her decade-long battle with endometriosis<\/a>, the 40-year-old on Sunday said she had been referred to a neurosurgeon to deal with bulging discs in her back, sciatica and arthritis.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurns out my back is pretty messed up,\u201d she wrote on Facebook. \u201cI have an L3\/L4 Broad Based Disc Bulge, spinal canal narrowing & arthritis. An L4\/L5 Disc Extrusion with narrowing of the nerve tunnel causing acute pain & sciatica down the left leg. Oh & arthritis. My L5\/S1 Disc is bulging slightly, is dryyyyy as a bone & the bones have moved around it from chronic stress on the joint.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter getting these results I was referred to a neurosurgeon & I basically have to do exactly what he says for the next two weeks and then he\u2019ll be able to tell me if I need surgery or not …. And have been told to rest. No exercise, no sitting \u2014 I can stand and walk or lay down. I\u2019m so bored\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Coulter earlier this year stepped into Nova FM\u2019s breakfast slot<\/a> in Sydney as part of a network-wide shake-up, co-hosting the lucrative time slot with Tim Blackwell<\/a>. The pair were most recently on-air on Thursday.<\/p>\n

After finishing seventh in the second season of Australian Idol in 2004, Coulter racked up five top 10 singles as a solo artist and two more with the Young Divas, a group comprised of previous contestants. She moved into radio in 2008, first appearing on Nova two years later.<\/p>\n

Coulter returned to Australian Idol as a presenter in 2008 and has co-hosted the show since 2023.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unpopular opinion: Camping is just discomfort with good PR<\/p>\n

7 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Major retailers recall popular drink bottle over dangerous lids<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radio and Australian Idol host Ricki-Lee Coulter has revealed a fresh health struggle. Two years after going public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,112922,480,134,1625,44,3863],"class_list":{"0":"post-588262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-idol","11":"tag-celebrity","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sponsored-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}