AAA<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing the implosion of his radio show<\/a> has made clear, it\u2019s that no one can really stop Kyle Sandilands saying something once he\u2019s on air. Except, sometimes, Bruno Bouchet.<\/p>\n On July 2 last year, Sandilands walked out of The Kyle and Jackie O show after Bouchet, the program\u2019s 40-year-old director, ordered one of its censors to dump a segment. Sandilands had travelled close to the sun discussing then-alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson before and Bouchet feared he was veering close to contempt again as the broadcaster took aim at speech restrictions. His explanation that he didn\u2019t want Sandilands or Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson jailed did nothing to stop the reaction that followed.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil this show runs the way I intend it to be run, I will not be back on the air, at all \u2026 So well done censor,\u201d Sandilands vented before he walked out. \u201cWell done Bruno, wherever you\u2019re hiding in my house. It\u2019s going to take me a good two hours to find this prick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bouchet may not literally cohabit with Sandilands, despite being at his house that day, but their lives are intertwined in almost every other way. Bouchet is not just the show\u2019s director, and occasional foil: he is also Sandilands\u2019 manager, the boss of his private company, and co-author of his 2012 autobiography, Scandilands.<\/p>\n It is a similar case for Henderson\u2019s manager Gemma O\u2019Neill, 43, who is a confidant, friend, strategist and, until recently, podcast co-host to her client. When Henderson, according to her lawyers, couldn\u2019t bear to be near her former co-host at a Federal Court hearing last month, O\u2019Neill showed up to observe proceedings<\/a>.<\/p>\n That the pair have different managers at all is testament to the gradual decline in their relationship. Once, both broadcasters were managed by Sandilands\u2019 then-best friend Andrew Hawkins. Adding to the dynamic of a family torn asunder, for a time O\u2019Neill was Bouchet\u2019s boss when she was running The Kyle & Jackie O Show and he was a staffer on the program. Now the managers find themselves on opposite sides of a three-way, $170 million legal dispute with the show\u2019s former broadcaster ARN<\/a> as their clients fight to get their lucrative contracts reinstated or effectively paid out.<\/p>\n Power beside the throne<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill and Bouchet have taken different routes to court in support of their clients. O\u2019Neill is expected to feature as a key witness but has been otherwise standing quietly behind her client. Bouchet, on the other hand, has been pictured filming Sandilands as he courts controversy, holding impromptu press conferences and arriving at hearings in his Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n Despite their differences, their client-manager relationships are like no other. \u201cIn both cases, Kyle and Jackie hired their \u2018best friends\u2019, which is highly unusual,\u201d says one leading talent agent, who spoke anonymously due to their ongoing role in the industry.<\/p>\n Both O\u2019Neill and Bouchet are not run-of-the-mill managers, either. Each has a client list that contains just one individual. \u201cBaby sitting and hand holding\u201d is how the agent describes their responsibilities. By contrast, top talent managers at a-grade agencies like CMC, Token and Profile often have several clients at once.<\/p>\n Choosing a manager can make or break even the biggest entertainer. There\u2019s a reason Colonel Tom Parker is portrayed as the villain in Elvis, controlling the King\u2019s life decisions. Brian Epstein, known as the \u201cfifth Beatle\u201d took the band from leather rockers to global domination. These kinds of relationships are usually reserved for global music superstars though, not radio hosts in Australia.<\/p>\n Over the past 18 months, industry insiders say that both managers had sought to exert more influence on the direction of the show. Henderson pushed more spiritual and wellbeing content, increasingly in line with her external business ventures with her manager, O\u2019Neill. Sandilands talked more politics, shifting the show in a different direction. All the while, the show was bombing in the Melbourne market<\/a> crucial to the broadcasters\u2019 combined $200 million in contracts, and Bouchet, most days, was physically in the studio.<\/p>\n Related Article Bouchet says that as a boss, Sandilands expects a hard work ethic from his staff. With that comes loyalty, and rewards in the form of lavish overseas trips to places like the south of France, Las Vegas or Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n Asked about how he copes with being berated by his boss, Bouchet says that \u201cdespite what people might think, Kyle is surprisingly open to other people\u2019s ideas.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, he\u2019ll push back hard, but if you\u2019re right, he\u2019ll back you just as hard.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a boss who\u2019s also your best friend is pretty rare \u2013 and it\u2019s a big part of why I\u2019m still here and why he still puts up with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, there are other reasons for Bouchet to stick around. Sandilands\u2019 contract, revealed amid the hearings, ensured that while Bouchet is employed by him and his private company, he was also paid an annual $200,000 salary by ARN as the show\u2019s director. On top of that, he\u2019d earn a salary direct from Sandilands.<\/p>\n Related Article While there are few earnest comments from Sandilands on the record about Bouchet, in 2020 he told an industry podcast his manager was \u201cdoing well\u201d in his new role running his private company, King Kyle. <\/p>\n \u201cI look at him as the same slave as I have always seen him. He gets paid more now though,\u201d Sandilands added.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill, meanwhile, declined to comment for this piece. The approach of both managers mirrors their clients\u2019 attitudes to the now-two month long break-up of modern Australian radio\u2019s most famous duo. Sandilands and his team have been on the front-foot, soaking up attention while Henderson and co have remained silent. Sandilands\u2019 barrister said as much in court.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the opera singer who doesn\u2019t want to sing. This is the broadcaster and performer who wants to get behind the microphone ASAP,\u201d Sandilands\u2019 barrister Scott Robertson, SC said last month.<\/p>\n Friends (almost) forever<\/p>\n The duo\u2019s history with their respective clients date back some time. O\u2019Neill was a teenager working at the reception desk of 2Day FM in Sydney when she met Henderson, then a host on the station, around the turn of the millennium. \u201cGemma was in school uniform when I met her,\u201d Henderson told Studio 10.<\/p>\n Eight years younger than Henderson, O\u2019Neill later became the executive producer of The Kyle & Jackie O Show in the early 2010s while still at Southern Cross Austereo, which formerly broadcast the program.<\/p>\n Related Article Bouchet is another former EP of the show and has been in Sandilands\u2019 orbit for more than 15 years, first working on The Kyle & Jackie O Show in 2010, at a time when it was run by O\u2019Neill. Initially, neither host appeared to like Bouchet, who was employed to book guests to appear on air. \u201cI was probably trying too hard to be liked by Kyle and he despised me and I thought I would be gone after my second week,\u201d Bouchet said on a podcast with Sandilands in 2020. Then later, he said, Henderson wouldn\u2019t let him into the studio. \u201cFor a guest booker it was very difficult that I couldn\u2019t take the guest into the studio. I opened the door for them and just pushed them in.\u201d<\/p>\n But Bouchet persisted. Today, he is known for his friendly relationship with journalists and widely considered \u201cwell-liked\u201d in the industry despite working in the high-pressure environment that is Kyle Sandilands. He is \u201cteam Kyle until the end\u201d says another industry figure, speaking anonymously due to the ongoing legal case.<\/p>\n Besides the pay, there is another reason for Bouchet\u2019s loyalty to Sandilands. Bouchet says he has had his \u201cshare of ups and downs\u201d throughout his life while living with bipolar disorder. Sandilands, he says, has helped get him through those periods \u201cwithout any shame or embarrassment\u201d.<\/p>\n In one incident, he was sacked from the Kyle & Jackie O Show\u2019s then-broadcaster 2Day FM in 2012 after a series of drunken tweets making light of a cinema mass shooting in Denver, Colorado. Bouchet took several years out of the industry to work as a sales representative for Casio. But he returned to the show in 2016, now on KIIS and ARN, with Sandilands\u2019 support. Later, he was elevated to its EP in 2017. He quit at the end of 2018 to spend more time with his family and partner Laura Bouchet, who also a well-known radio producer and content boss at Triple M in Sydney.<\/p>\n But Bruno Bouchet wasn\u2019t done with Sandilands. Sandilands and his long-time manager and best friend Andy Hawkins, who also previously managed Henderson and managed the pair\u2019s defection to ARN in 2013, fell out in 2019. Bouchet replaced him. Bouchet was \u201ctoo good to throw away\u201d after leaving the show, Sandilands said at the time as he also made him managing director of King Kyle, Sandilands\u2019 private company which oversees his various investments. The move was characteristic of the tight circle Sandilands keeps around him. His wife Tegan Kynaston is communications chief of King Kyle, his personal company, for instance, and was his personal assistant at the time they met.<\/p>\n Related Article Unlike Sandilands, Henderson has had a longer list of more traditional managers over the course of her career, including some big names. She dropped veteran radio executive and talent manager Brad March for O\u2019Neill in 2022. March declined to comment. Before March, Henderson was represented by RGM Artists, a talent agency then co-owned by Hugh Marks, the ABC\u2019s current managing director<\/a>. Marks was even Henderson\u2019s manager briefly before joining Nine, the owner of this masthead, as its chief executive in 2015. He also declined to comment.<\/p>\n The move to drop March took the industry by surprise, with Henderson instead opting for her best friend, O\u2019Neill. The younger woman had been made redundant at Southern Cross, the radio company where she had been content boss of the Hit Network, home to stations 2Day FM and The Fox in Melbourne, in 2021.<\/p>\n After the redundancy, O\u2019Neill founded her own talent management agency, Gemmie. Then she took a detour with an appointment as chief executive of corporate women\u2019s network and events company Business Chicks in mid-2022. But just months after she joined, Business Chicks announced it was \u201cscaling down\u201d and making redundancies.<\/p>\n It was around that time that Henderson picked O\u2019Neill as her representative. Speaking about her later decision to go into business with O\u2019Neill, Henderson told Studio 10 that their friendship had deepened when her future manager was working on her show.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just went from a school kid wanting to get into radio to running a whole radio network all these years later, and Gemma also executive produced the Kyle & Jackie O Show at one stage in the past so we really got to know each other really well back then,\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n Working with Henderson provided opportunities for O\u2019Neill. In mid-2023, she and Henderson launched another business called \u2018Besties\u2019, primarily focused on speaking events, private holidays and \u201cluxe products – all for you and your BFF\u201d.<\/p>\n Then the duo launched their new podcast, Her Best Life, taking O\u2019Neill from behind the scenes to in front of the microphone and camera. In public and private, O\u2019Neill is intensely protective of her client.<\/p>\n Baptism of fire<\/p>\n That came to the fore in the first year O\u2019Neill was managing Henderson, when she helped her address substance abuse issues. When the person supplying her with prescription medication cut her off, Henderson previously told her listeners, her first phone call was to O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI needed someone who I knew could a) help me, and b) wouldn\u2019t judge me and was close to me that I could trust,\u201d Henderson later told Mamamia.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill booked Henderson into a rehab facility in America and helped organise her temporary departure from the show, despite the difficulty of dealing with a client in the midst of a battle with addiction. \u201cShe really was like a child \u2013 screaming out for help but pushing you away,\u201d O\u2019Neill told this masthead\u2019s Good Weekend magazine<\/a>. \u201cBut there was also part of her that was giving in. I think she was exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandilands, who at that time Henderson was still describing as the most important man in her life, was not told.<\/p>\n In more recent years, O\u2019Neill has her own battles of a different kind. Her Gemmie talent agency went into voluntary liquidation last year after owing $543,548 to the Australian Tax Office. \u201cI stand by my integrity, I stand by my work and I stand by how I\u2019ve conducted myself in business over a very long career,\u201d O\u2019Neill later said on her podcast, adding she would not discuss details for legal reasons.<\/p>\n Then, just weeks before her final episode alongside Sandilands on February 20, Henderson announced on their podcast she was stepping back from the venture, needing to protect her private life. O\u2019Neill would be carrying on alone, the pair said. This only lasted a few weeks. O\u2019Neill paused the podcast in early April after announcing to listeners she had a miscarriage.<\/p>\n Related Article Despite the rollercoaster of events, Besties and Her Best Life went ahead with one of the brands\u2019 highest profile events in April, a weekend retreat at the Coogee Intercontinental Hotel featuring headline guest Meghan Markle<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Bouchet and Sandilands were manoeuvring to get the controversial broadcaster back on air, O\u2019Neill was recording a video hyping the event for women eager to hear her, Markle and Henderson\u2019s stories of resilience and success.<\/p>\n There could have been few clearer views of how far the camps have diverged. But they are likely to be forced together in a courtroom if their cases \u2013 Sandilands\u2019 claiming his contract was improperly ripped up, Henderson\u2019s arguing the network failed to protect her from his bullying \u2013 do not settle.<\/p>\n While Henderson wants her case heard separately from his, and Sandilands\u2019 lawyers are agnostic, ARN\u2019s lawyers told the Federal Court last month that there were so many overlapping factual issues the cases had to be heard together. Justice Angus Stewart is yet to decide if that will happen, but he has blocked out October 12 to October 23 for the trial. That could bring both managers even further into the limelight.<\/p>\n Read more on Kyle and Jackie O <\/p>\n![\"Gemma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e54d22a38dc985ce8ee0f2a18138e0b8f9e57631.jpeg\")
Gemma O\u2019Neill manager and business partner of radio host Jackie \u201cO\u201d Henderson leaves the Federal Court in Sydney on April 24, 2026.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n![\"Sandilands\u2019](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/09227cadffc2152276770bb858a76fcfe3e0535a.jpeg\")
Sandilands\u2019 manager Bruno Bouchet films Kyle Sandilands as he speaks to the press outside his home in March. Jessica Hromas<\/p>\n![\"Just](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/19d9079d6bf687ba93376a53984baa5b60a7c14f9aa457446ccc775d421084cc.jpeg\")
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Bouchet [centre] and O\u2019Neill [background] briefly worked together on The Kyle and Jackie O Show in 2010 and 2011.Fairfax Media<\/p>\n![\"Many](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e8694e0bed7d72d4e743c68c0eb49961f2747540489cbb4dc22178c31f597fca.gif\")
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Jackie Henderson (right) and Gemma O\u2019Neill (left) brought a version of their friendship to the world via the Besties business.Louie Douvis<\/p>\n![\"\u201cThere\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/007dee559241432dedc233c1079f72fae94e5535.jpeg\")
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