Radio presenter Kip Wightman reveals how his son got tipsy during family dinner

Brisbane radio presenter Kip Wightman has revealed how an innocent mistake led to his five-year-old son getting drunk at the dinner table.

Kip Wightman admits to an awkward parenting blunder. Picture: Liam Kidston

Brisbane radio personality Kip Wightman has learnt the hard way that not all “non-alcoholic” beverages are truly alcohol-free, after mistakenly serving his five-year-old son a glass of de-alcoholised wine — only to watch the effects unfold at the dinner table.

Wightman, who co-hosts KIIS 97.3’s breakfast show with Robin Bailey and Corey Oates, admitted to the parenting blunder on air Thursday, explaining that he had purchased the wine for his father, who had stopped drinking after a cancer diagnosis.

Under the assumption that “de-alcoholised” meant entirely alcohol-free, he later gave some to his son, Rafael, when the child requested to join in on the family’s wine-drinking tradition.

“We were having spaghetti and we were having regular wine, Naomi and I … and Raffy said, ‘Hey, can I have some wine?’,” Wightman said.

“I just went, big light bulb moment — yes, you can have some. I’ve got the de-alcoholised wine!”

KIIS 97.3's radio presenter Kip Wightman, Milton. Picture: Liam Kidston

It wasn’t long before Rafael began acting strangely, claiming there was an earthquake shaking the dinner table before eventually slumping forward in his chair.

“Then, about five or six minutes later, he starts acting silly … he’s just doing silly stuff, and then he says to me, ‘Hey, Dad, there’s an earthquake, and he’s like shaking the table,” Wightman said.

“So I run to the bottle now, which I put back in the cupboard … I checked the bottle and it said ‘may still contain alcohol’.

“I got my son drunk, and I didn’t mean to.”

His co-hosts were both amused and horrified at Wightman’s confession.

“It was the best spaghetti of his life,” Oates joked.

KIIS 97.3's new breakfast trio Kip Wightman, Robin Bailey, and Corey Oates, Milton. Picture: Liam Kidston

According to Wine Australia, the Australian Government statutory corporation that promotes and regulates the Australian wine industry, de-alcoholised wine is made by removing most of the alcohol from a fully fermented wine.

While this can preserve much of the wine’s flavour, it does not guarantee it is 100 per cent free from alcohol.

If the final product contains less than 0.5% ABV, the label may not be legally required to disclose the alcohol content at all — leading many consumers to assume these drinks are entirely alcohol-free.