Kyle Sandilands has once again spoken out about his rivalry with Australian Idol co-star, Harry Connick Jnr amid claims their feud was “staged”.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Sandilands revealed that the long-running beef between the pair was genuine.
“It’s not bullshit. There’s no drama really. It’s like, you know when someone just doesn’t like you, you can tell?” he told the publication.
“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t run around and praise me, which I don’t expect him to, like it’s tongue in cheek, but he’s at one end and I’m at the other.”
He added that he doesn’t “hate” Connick Jnr, but the pair “don’t really get to spend a lot of time together”.
Sandilands continued, “He’s flat out. I’m super busy. It’s not a rivalry or any drama… It’s just not close like Meghan [Trainor] and I.”
It comes after the shock jock explained during an appearance on KIIS FM’s Will and Woody show that he and Connick Jnr had a “blow up” that resulted in them not talking to one another.
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“I didn’t mind him … I don’t feel he got the vibe of me,” Sandilands said of when they first met.
“Personally, I don’t think he gelled with me. If someone doesn’t like you, and you feel it, you just don’t like them automatically,” he added.
Kyle then confirmed that the argument began over the use of the contestants’ pronouns.
“Yes, we had a blow-up… It wasn’t a Michael Clarke, Karl Stefanovic situation,” he said, referencing the recent brawl between the cricket star and Today host.
“He [Connick Jnr] rang me, I was leaving, I was climbing up the 3 or 4 steps to my plane while he was lined up for the airport going through security,” he quipped of his luxury travel arrangements compared to the other judges.
“I said to someone that he wanted the pronouns to be put onto the contestants’ sheets. I thought I heard him say to a producer, ‘we need the pronouns’ and I told someone on an interview, ‘Oh Harry’s going on about the pronouns.’
“Apparently, it wasn’t Harry. And he rang me and he took great offence,” Kyle said, adding that the conversation turned into an argument before he apologised.
“I just thought ‘what a flop’ and hung up,” he said, adding: “That was it. Friendship over.”
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