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Kyle tells Jacqui O she’s fat and makes her cry (and makes the rest of us want to punch the radio).

UPDATE: Here’s an idea: call off the stupid bet and donate the $5000 to The Butterfly Foundation who run fantastic school programs to educate girls about eating disorders and body image.

Sigh. Just last week I found this picture of Jackie and I sitting next to
each other at a fashion week show a few years ago. How stunningly
beautiful is she? We know each other a little bit and I must tell you she is one of the most genuine, sweet celebrities I’ve ever met. Down-to-earth and self-deprecating.

I wasn’t going to post on this but so many of you want to talk about it so here we go. Last week on their breakfast radio show on Sydney’s 2DayFM, Kyle Sandilands told his co-host, the gorgeous Jacqui O that she was fat.

 

He did it in the form of an ‘intervention’ by a ‘friend’ under the guise of being ‘concerned about her health’ and telling her that the reason the media keeps speculating she’s pregnant is simply because she’s so fat as to be confused with someone carrying a baby.
He then tells her she looks like Kirsty Alley. She is shocked and then offended and then she cries.

The whole thing was quickly packaged up into a promo by 2DayFM which has been played continuously on air ever since.
And now, Kyle has offered to donate $5000 to Jackie’s favourite charity, Animals Australia, if she can lose 4kg in a week. If she can’t, he’ll donate the money to a pig farm.
This whole thing is repugnant on so many levels.
Jackie is a beautiful, sexy woman in her early thirties who has a normal body. She is not fat. She is not even overweight. She is also trying to fall pregnant. Something she has spoken about and something that will not be made easier by going on a crash diet.

Look, Kyle is a savvy media player and is drawn to controversy like a magnet. He lives for this stuff. He knows he’s going to get slammed for being irresponsible and he knows that will translate into media oxygen which is what he breathes. And like so many others, I’m playing right into his desire. So the joke’s on me. Except it’s not. It’s on all the women who look in the mirror and feel shit about themselves. It’s about propagating the idea of crash diets and judgeing women by what they weigh. If you want to watch the clip of Kyle making Jackie cry, you can go here. The clip is helpfully titled “Jackie cries”. Nice.