Kyle Sandilands hit back at columnist Annette Sharp after her comments about his brain aneurysm surgery: ‘I’ll die on air before I let this woman win’

Kyle Sandilands has hit back at a Sydney columnist who suggested KIIS FM bosses would take advantage of his brain aneurysm diagnosis to tinker with his popular breakfast radio show.

An opinion piece written by News Corp columnist Annette Sharp suggested that management would use Kyle’s on-air absence to retool The Kyle and Jackie O Show and tone down its graphic nature as it continues to struggle in the Melbourne ratings.

‘On Friday radio industry insiders voiced the belief radio bosses will use the time Sandilands is away for surgery to have a go at fixing the show,’ Sharp wrote.

‘Eight weeks, the maximum time Sandilands plans to take off to have brain surgery, equates to the length of one standard radio ratings survey.’

On Thursday, Sandilands, 53, slammed Sharp’s assertions, labelling her an ‘old dolly’ who writes ‘terrible, negative things’.

Speaking to his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, he was adamant he would not be taking ‘two to eight weeks’ off as Sharp suggested after he confirmed he would have to undergo extensive surgery.

‘There’s no two to eight weeks off,’ he said. 

‘There’s no time off for me. I’ll die on air before I let this woman win.’

The shock jock also rubbished claims his KIIS FM bosses have any say in the direction of the show.

‘Let me explain one more time – the bosses have no control whatsoever over what we do on this show. Zero. None,’ he said.

‘It starts and ends with what we want to do.

‘It doesn’t matter if the board show up here with all the shareholders. We’re contracted to do whatever we want to do. And if you don’t like it, too bad.

‘There’s no one sneaking around in the background fixing s***, cos there’s nothing to fix.’

In November, it was announced that Kyle would be reducing his trademark graphic sexual content in a bid to appeal to the Melbourne market.

However, speaking to Mumbrella, ARN’s chief content officer Duncan Campbell said Kyle was the one who ‘came to the table’ with toning down on the graphic content.

The sexual content was really a small part of the show,’ he said.

‘Because it was graphic, it grabbed everyone’s attention – but [Kyle’s] taken that off, really. It’s still sexual content. But not the graphic sexual content that it once was.

‘[Kyle] wants to win in Melbourne. There’s no doubt about that,’ he added.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Kyle for comment. 

Kyle told listeners last week he had a brain aneurysm which required immediate emergency brain surgery.

The media veteran warned listeners ‘a life of cocaine abuse and partying are not the way to go’.

Then, on Friday, Kyle also revealed that that surgeons will have to open his skull, rather than have keyhole surgery, to access the aneurysm which is located on the front right side of his brain.

He also said that he needs to have a second surgery to remove another aneurysm which has been found in his chest. 

‘The [brain] aneurysm is at a Y junction and it is at the top. The shape of it has limited the operation they can do. The only option to get to it is to [open the skull],’ he told co-host Jackie O Henderson.

‘That means I will have this huge scar from the forehead to top of my ear and they would have to drill a hole in my skull, go into the brain and clip it off.’

Kyle revealed the doctor told him he will have less problems ‘leaving it and monitoring it’ until it gets bigger.

‘As soon as I do any procedure my risk goes right up. He told me to take the weekend to think about it,’ Kyle said, before revealing the second surgery.

‘They found another one in my chest and that’s a separate surgery and I have very bad calcium buildup in the heart where I’m likely to have a heart attack.’