Nova 106.9 presenter Kip Wightman confirms marriage split

Days after the separation of another team member, long-time Nova breakfast show presenter Kip Wightman confirms he has split with his wife of four years.

Brisbane radio host Kip Wightman and wife Amber have separated after almost four years of marriage.

The long-time Nova breakfast show presenter confirmed the split, telling The Courier-Mail it had been “the most difficult time” he could remember but that the pair were focused on prioritising their one-year-old son, Rafael.

“One thing we are doing well is caring for and sharing our time with our son,” he said.

“I very much appreciate the support from family and friends and people understanding our need for privacy and time to process.”

The couple are understood to have split late last year, with sources close to them saying they shared different ideas about their future direction as a family before they parted ways.

They tied the knot in a ceremony at Bulimba, in Brisbane’s inner east, in April 2017 after he popped the question a year earlier during a holiday in Tanzania.

Kip Wightman wife Amber and their son Rafael at home in Balmoral on June 1, 2020. Picture, John Gass

They welcomed their son in July 2019, taking name inspiration from tennis legend Rafael Nadal, while his middle name Victor was a nod to Amber’s father.

Wightman was part of Nova’s original breakfast team when the station launched in 2005 but, after separating from his first wife Leanne, he briefly left the show in 2009, spending time in the US with a new girlfriend.

He then returned to the Nova show, rejoining co-hosts Ash Bradnam and David “Luttsy” Lutteral in 2012 and the trio have presented the top-rating show ever since – adding Susie O’Neill as a full-time co-host two years ago.

The Courier-Mail revealed last week that Lutteral has also split from swimmer Emily Seebohm, with the pair calling time on their romance last month after more than a year of dating.

Nova ended 2020 as Brisbane’s most listened to station with the breakfast show winning the final three surveys since ratings returned following the COVID-19 shutdown.

The first radio survey of 2021 will be released on Thursday.