Radio host Will McMahon apologises for being ‘a real d**k’, as he opens up about mental struggle

KIIS Network radio host Will McMahon has apologised to his co-host for being “hard to deal with” lately, as he revealed the sad reason why.

Australian radio host Will McMahon has stunned listeners by claiming he’d been a “real d**k” lately, as he apologised to co-host Woody Whitelaw and his producers on-air.

The popular TV and radio star, who co-hosts KIIS Network’s Will & Woody drive show, delivered an emotional, candid spiel on Thursday’s show as he revealed the extent of his depression struggle, which he’s been open about in the past.

McMahon kicked things off by acknowledging he’d been “a real d**k the past couple of weeks”, as he further explained how his “controlling personality type” impacted his mood.

“I don’t like myself very much at the moment, and when I don’t like myself, let’s face it, I’ve been a real d**k the past couple of weeks,” McMahon said.

“I feel really bad about that because I know that you guys are around me all day, every day and I can be really tricky to deal with when I’m like that. Because I am a controlling personality type, when I don’t like myself, I over-control and I resent anyone who takes that control away from me and I think it’s important to understand why.”

Woody listened as his co-host opened up about his mental health struggles.

Will said he doesn’t “like myself very much at the moment”.

The father-of-one went on to share that he feels “out of control” when he’s suffering mentally, and so he tries to re-gain it in other ways.

“Because you can’t control that thing, you still want to control [other] things, but your control goes into overdrive so you project that onto everything else around you, which ultimately means you just dislike yourself more because you are not dealing with the issue and you are hurting the people around you,” he said.

“It becomes this really vicious cycle because you see other people hurt around you and then ultimately you keep bruising them and you aren’t listening to what’s going on underneath.

“And because the more you dislike yourself, the more you want to control and the more you control, the more you dislike yourself – it kind of just doesn’t end and it is a really hard thing for me to tap out of.”

Will and Woody have been mates since school.

McMahon said he had the realisation this week – after retreating from his colleagues to work by himself – how his current state of mind was impacting those around him.

“I just want to apologise to you guys for being like that,” he said.

“I think we all made a joke about obviously how hard I was to deal with on that day, but it was also a really strong realisation to me that I was really hard to deal with. I want to share that with you, my whole team because I’m really sorry.

“The reason I wanted to share that is because I know lots of people, have got people in their lives that can be over controlling and dominant and sometimes those people go up a level and it’s really hard to be around. If you can, when that’s going on, it often means they are really struggling, and I know it’s the hardest thing to do in the world. That person becomes like a thundercloud.

“I want to say that I appreciate all those people that have to be around dominant or controlling people.”

McMahon and Whitelaw became friends in school, and have now hosted on radio together for over a decade.

Back in 2019, McMahon lifted the lid about his private battle with depression in honour of R U OK? Day.

At the time, Whitelaw talked about how he handles McMahon’s illness.

“I try to, as early as possible, make sure that I’ve got the mindset of, ‘It’s nothing that you’ve done, as in me,’” Whitelaw said.

“To talk really candidly … When you are in a dark spot it can at times feel like you’re angry at me. I try to see the depression as opposed to seeing you, I know that sounds a bit weird, but that does help me.”

McMahon then broke down in tears, recalling an incident where he was feeling low and took it out on a room full of co-workers.

“You don’t know I heard this,” he said to Whitelaw. “I’d obviously pissed off a whole bunch of people … and I walked out and I could hear you in there saying to everyone, ‘It wasn’t me,’ and you wanted everyone to just forgive me for how I’d been and what I’d said.”

Originally published as Radio host Will McMahon apologises for being ‘a real d**k’, as he opens up about mental struggle