{"id":626868,"date":"2026-04-24T01:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626868\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T01:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:20:12","slug":"radio-presenter-declares-arn-dispute-pretty-ugly-after-arriving-at-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626868\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio presenter declares ARN dispute \u2018pretty ugly\u2019 after arriving at Federal Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated April 24, 2026 \u2014 10:57am,first published April 24, 2026 \u2014 9:59am<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

Save this article for later<\/p>\n

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n

Got it<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

Watch the hearing live here from 10.15 AM<\/a> via the Federal Court.<\/p>\n

Kyle Sandilands\u2019 barrister has told the Federal Court that his conduct may not have been pleasant, but that the owners of the KIIS network knew exactly what they were getting and took responsibility for it via a specially customised contract.<\/p>\n

Sandilands\u2019 barrister Scott Robertson, SC argued that \u201cif you buy Kyle, you get Kyle\u201d and that ARN profited off his conduct while outlining his client\u2019s arguments during a case management hearing on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\"BroadcasterBroadcaster Kyle Sandilands\u2019 lawyer has admitted his conduct was not nice, but argued it was in line with his contract.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of conduct in which he engaged was conduct that was desired, contractually designed. That\u2019s the word of the contract, and indeed was monetised, evidence will demonstrate,\u201d Robertson told the court. He said that applied even where Sandilands\u2019 conduct occurred off-air, but in the broadcast studio where everything was recorded.<\/p>\n

He urged Federal Court Justice Angus Stewart to hear his case as soon as possible in June, arguing that ARN is \u201cthrowing the kitchen sink\u201d at the case via one of the largest law firms in the world.<\/p>\n

Sandilands\u2019 lawyer admitted that a judge may \u201clike\u201d the conduct Sandilands is accused of, but that it does not amount to a breach of his contract. He added that Sandilands \u201cappears highly likely\u201d to admit to having \u201cengaged in the poor conduct that is alleged\u201d.<\/p>\n

Robertson said that as a citizen himself \u201cI look at it and say \u2018this is not nice conduct, this is not the kind of conduct that I think someone should engage in\u2019,\u201d he said it does not amount to conduct of which ARN could tear up Sandilands\u2019 contract, which had a special clause to protect the foul-mouthed radio host.<\/p>\n

Sandiland\u2019s team do not want his own case against ARN to be heard at the same time as that of his former co-host Jackie \u2018O\u2019 Henderson \u2013 who is also suing the radio network over her scrapped contract \u2013 if it means it slows down the whole process.<\/p>\n

Sandilands arrived at the Federal Court of Australia in a black Rolls-Royce an hour earlier, calling his legal dispute with KIIS network owner ARN Media<\/a> \u201cpretty ugly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former top-rating radio host told a packed media scrum on Friday morning he wanted to sort the dispute out to get back on air and boost ARN\u2019s share price.<\/p>\n

Sandilands, ever the showman, pulled up outside the court in the luxury vehicle, bearing the number plate KS20, and was trailed into the building by dozens of reporters, photographers and videographers. <\/p>\n

Sandilands said he hadn\u2019t spoken to Henderson since their dramatic on-air separation in February<\/a>, admitting to reporters that things were \u201calready pretty ugly\u201d. \u201cPut me back on the radio. Let\u2019s get the share price back up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"KyleKyle Sandilands was thronged by the media on his arrival at the Federal Court on Friday.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n

The Federal Court in Sydney today is also hosting a clutch of other high-profile cases including the consumer watchdog\u2019s case against Woolworths<\/a> and a defamation case against actor Rebel Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ARN tore up Henderson\u2019s contract in early March<\/a> this year after she allegedly refused to work with Sandilands because of his conduct towards her. Two weeks later, it scrapped his contract as well<\/a> after he was unable to \u201cremedy\u201d what it said was serious misconduct on his part, stemming from his on and off-air behaviour toward his former co-host of 25 years.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Not long after, both stars sued the company<\/a> in separate attempts to claw back the majority of the $200 million contracts they had each signed, which began just over 14 months ago.<\/p>\n

As ARN filed its defence to the court to both matters on Tuesday this week, this masthead also revealed the company is also suing both former employees and their private companies<\/a> in a pair of counter claims, citing lost revenue and profits as a result of the show blowing up, largely due to alleged \u201csystemic bullying\u201d on behalf of Sandilands toward Henderson.<\/p>\n

Sandilands\u2019 2004 Series 1 Rolls-Royce Phantom is worth, by some estimates, about $1 million.<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

\"KishorKishor Napier-Raman<\/a> is a senior business writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a CBD columnist and reporter in the federal parliamentary press gallery.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"CalumCalum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 24, 2026 \u2014 10:57am,first published April 24, 2026 \u2014 9:59am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-626868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626868","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=626868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}