Robin Bailey: Complete story of radio star’s rise to fame
Robin Bailey has been the voice of Brisbane for more than two decades, but with that profile has come very public tragedies and struggles. This is her story.
She’s the queen of the airwaves known for her open and relatable touch.
Robin Bailey has been the voice of Brisbane for more than two decades, but with that profile has come very public tragedies and struggles.
Her winding career took another savage twist in October 2025 when she was dumped from KIIS 97.3FM, alongside her two co-hosts.
This is the story of Bailey’s rise to prominence, how she copped with unimaginable grief, and why she is coming out the other side stronger.
EARLY LIFE
Born in 1970 in Sydney, Bailey attended Concord High and would face tough times early in her life.
Her dad, Peter, a “proud cricket lover” with a history of heart problems, suffered a fatal heart attack while watching the Ashes on television late one night as 11-year-old Bailey and her sister Pippa, then 13, slept in the next room.
Mercifully, they did not wake to the commotion of their mother Julie running to get help from the neighbours, the arrival of the ambulance nor the paramedics working on him for 40 minutes. He was 56.
“So he put us to bed and mum woke us up and said ‘he’s died’,” Bailey said in August 2020.
“I remember it like it was yesterday, I remember the feeling and I can remember just looking at her (mum) going ‘what do you mean, what are you talking about?’. At that moment, I was so bewildered.”
Her father’s death forged an “absolute undying love” between Bailey, Pippa and mum Julie, who was a guiding light for Bailey.
Bailey in August 2020 described her hardworking mum, herself the product of a single mum, as having been “just everything” when she was growing up.
Bailey said her mum has always been good at just sitting with her in her grief.
“She just understood – any single parent knows the difficulty and she just validated that it’s hard,” Bailey said.
Bailey in 2020 explained how Julie still lived in Sydney in the house Bailey grew up in, with her partner of 25 years – also called Robin.
Bailey admitted that, when her mum came out to her during her teenage years, she didn’t handle it “overly well”.
“It wasn’t anything to do with the fact that she was gay, it was the fact that I was going to be losing my mum to a partner,” she said.
“You know, I was a narcissistic 19-year-old, it was all about me. But, having said that, it didn’t take me too long to get it together, but I remember walking out and just needing time to think. Knowing me, I probably went for a run.”
MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELF
In a winding career that has taken her to all parts of Australia, Bailey found love for radio after taking an elective subject at school in Sydney.
From there she landed a job in Bourke as a cadet journalist at radio station 2WEB.
Her stocks began to rise and soon she was hosting national children’s television show Hot Science, as well as presenting the weather on TasTv.
She earned a regular guest spot on various national shows including Today, The Project and Nine News Now, as well as hosting her own podcast The Well.
In 1992 she spoke about travelling to Melbourne each fortnight to host Pluck-a-Duck on Hey, Hey It’s Saturday.
“Doing the show is a lot of fun,” Robin said.
“John Blackman is always making jokes about my ears and Plucka usually teases me, but the crew are a great bunch to work with.”
After a 1993 stopover at Adelaide station KA-FM, Bailey truly found her niche on Brisbane radio.
By 1995 she has gained a role with high-rating B105 Morning crew with Jamie Dunn and Ian Skippen.
After a long and successful with 97.3 FM, Bailey in 2016 was sacked following a bitter contract dispute with the top-rating station.
Bailey then launched an extraordinary attack on her former employer, claiming she had been “blindsided” by her dumping from the Robin, Terry and Bob show.
She was called in to a meeting with management immediately following her shift and told her services were no longer required.
“I find this really distressing, this is just so awful,” she said at the time.
“We’ve been in contract negotiations for a long time and it’s taken a fair while but we made them an offer and they just never countered it.
“Then I came off air and was taken into a boardroom and they told me they wouldn’t renew my contract.
“I got really distressed. I’m just honestly completely at a loss.”
Radio reinvention
After joining the Triple M crew with Greg Martin & Ed Kavalee in 2017, Bailey was in 2020 reinstated at 97.3FM.
In October 2021 Bailey explained how the rollercoaster of radio ratings impacted her.
“It’s always concerning. You don’t like to go down,” Bailey said.
“It was a bit like building a new breakfast team. The adage in commercial radio is that it takes 18 months to two years to do that, so I think with the global pandemic, we were just getting back on our feet and, if I’m honest, personally I think I was in a pretty bad way.
“I’d only just come back, my husband had died and it was tough; then we went into lockdown and I couldn’t see my family. All of that didn’t help, but that’s called life.”
“It felt a bit like the rest of the world was going through how I was feeling anyway. It just took a bit of time to get back on our feet and that’s certainly what we’ve done – probably a little bit ahead of time.”
However another twist came in October 2025 when Bailey and co-hosts Kip Wightman and Corey Oates were shock casualties of the latest industry bloodletting.
The trio’s KIIS 97.3FM show was sensationally axed, with Bailey spotted looking downcast just hours after news became public.
Days later Bailey became the first of KIIS 97.3’s dumped breakfast trio to speak publicly about the show’s shock axing, taking a gentle swipe at the network in an emotional post to social media.
In her heartfelt message, Bailey described the show’s staff as “seven amazing, talented, kind and compassionate people” who “lost their jobs last Thursday”, before suggesting the radio industry “cares more about money than connection”.
FAMILY AND PERSONAL LIFE
Bailey and first husband Tony had three sons together – Fin, Lewin and Piper – before they welcomed Ally and Jamie, the children of second husband Sean, into their lives.
During the height of the Covid pandemic, Bailey revealed the crucial role her children played in getting her through the tough times.
“ … My three sons are home a lot more and are much more aware of how hard I’m struggling so they have stepped up in ways that would not have happened if not for COVID-19,” she wrote in May 2020.
“I sat them down when we first went into lockdown and said that they needed to become more like flatmates than kids and start to take responsibility for themselves and the household, and they have.
“ … Don’t get me wrong, my kids aren’t saints but as a family, we have been through a lot, and in our world, the small stuff isn’t worth getting worked up over so if mum needs a hand they do it.”
She also touched on how she dealt with speaking to wider family members.
“I miss my friends and my family the most. Still, Zoom meetings have become a regular Sunday night event, and we have not only included my mum and sister (and her family in Sydney) but my half-sister in the UK and my cousin in Melbourne, and that would never have happened outside of this experience,” she wrote.
A year earlier Bailey and her three sons ventured to India in a bid to reconnect after losing Sean.
“I want us to experience a completely different culture. I want us to taste, smell, touch and feel things that challenge us but most importantly I want us to realise that despite how sh***y the last 5 years have been we are still so damn lucky,” she wrote on Instagram.
In April 2020 Bailey revealed 10 things that most people would not know about her, including her bucket list and favourite songs.
While in October 2020 she took us inside her wardrobe.
LOSING TONY
Bailey and Smart had been in the process of separating after almost 16 years of marriage when he took his own life in 2014.
When Smart died, Bailey said she shouldered some of the blame and tortured herself for the part she could have played in it.
“There was so much angst and anger around Tony’s death,” she said in August 2020.
The day started out like any other Monday, with Bailey returning home from work on her popular breakfast show alongside Terry and Bob to discover their family’s world had been turned upside down.
She was devastated for her boys and spent the ensuing weeks and months consumed by guilt and dealing with repeated shocks, including the dire state of their finances.
“I just hammered myself after Tony died – I felt such guilt, I felt so sad and I punished myself,” she said.
“Of course, I was a contributing factor around Tony (dying) but I don’t take responsibility because, if I did, what does that say to my kids?”
Despite the trauma, Bailey said her efforts went towards supporting the couple’s three sons, Fin, Lewin and Piper.
“The things that happened with their father weren’t their fault but, of course, they think that,” Bailey said.
“Their dad passionately loved them, he really did, he was a great dad.”
The Facebook page of Robin, Terry and Bob was inundated with messages.
“Oh nooo I felt (sic) knew him as she always spoke about her family. My deepest condolences to you and your kiddies. RIP,” listener Lilian Santa Cruz wrote.
In December 2015 Smart’s father Max claimed Bailey had been making inaccurate statements about his son since his death.
For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au
For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or at www.beyondblue.org.au
The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263) or at www.sane.org
LOSIN SEAN
Within days of losing second husband Sean Pickwell to liver cancer in September 2019, Bailey opened up about her grief.
Pickwell, 56, who was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2017, died at home in Brisbane in his wife’s arms and surrounded by family.
The couple, who had met 25 years earlier working at Melbourne’s Fox FM, started dating in 2015 and were married in 2018, a short time after Pickwell’s diagnosis.
“What can I say . my big beautiful panda has gone. He died as he lived … his way … at home with us holding him … early this morning,” Bailey wrote on Facebook.
“In this moment there are no words or feelings that can truly express the love and gratitude I have for my husband Sean Pickwell. He came into our lives and healed us. He loved me so hard and taught me so much and now whatever life throws at us we will be stronger, wiser and more fierce because of him.
“He was my absolute soulmate, the true love of my life and whatever I do from now on he will be in my heart and in my corner cheering me on.”
Pickwell even penned a letter about his battle, just before passing away.
Three years on, in September 2022, Bailey expressed how she was still trying to come to terms with the loss.
“I can’t actually fathom it but I’ve felt every day of it,” she said.
“Grief is just so cruel as I think the last year has been the hardest.
“Year 1 was living through the shock and devastation, getting through all the firsts.
“Year 2 was trying to make sense of it all.
“But year 3 is realising you have to move on even though you don’t want to. Even though you were so excited about your old life. It stopped and now you have to build another one.”
A NEW LOVE
In April 2024 Bailey “soft-launched” her newest romantic relationship on Instagram.
Nicknamed ‘Waffles’ by Bailey and her KIIS97.3 radio co-host Kip Wightman, mystery man Olivier Massart and Bailey were snapped soaking up the sun in New Caledonia, enjoying their first romantic getaway just three months into their relationship.
However in October Bailey confirmed she had called it quits with her Belgian partner amid his divorce proceedings.
“He is still trying to sort out his settlement and divorce, and I don’t feel like there’s a place for me in that right now,” Bailey said.
“It’s out of respect for his ex, for him, and for myself.”
By the end of the month the romance was back on: “I’m back with my boyfriend, Olivier, after a little two month hiatus while he sorted out his settlement and divorce,” she revealed.
CANDID ON-AIR CONVERSATIONS
‘I have had a threesome – twice’
Bailey in January 2023 shocked her KIIS 97.3FM co-hosts when she admitted to having had a threesome, twice – once when she was young and single and another as a married woman.
She said her first experience was as a young single woman working at a bar in Sydney, regularly going out afterwards to drink with colleagues on Oxford St.
“One of the managers was a gay woman in a committed relationship,” Bailey said.
“Her girlfriend came and met us and we all went for a drink.
“At about 3 o’clock in the morning they invited me to go back with them.
“So we went back to their house. There was a moment where I had a choice to make.
“I gave it a crack, but I didn’t like it and I didn’t end up sort of staying.”
Later, Bailey shared that she was overseas in Paris with her husband at the time, who thought it would spice up their relationship to have a threesome with another woman.
“There’s a lot of stuff (in my book) I feel ashamed of and this is one of those things,” she said.
‘It’s a lifelong challenge’
Bailey in January 2023 opened up about her lifelong struggle with eating disorders in an emotional conversation about body image.
Speaking on KIIS 97.3’s breakfast show, Bailey responded to co-host Kip Wightman’s admission that he hated his body – a conversation that was inspired by Taryn Brumfitt winning Australian of the year for her Body Confidence movement.
Bailey, who has been open about her experience with eating disorders in the past, had suggested supporting Wightman by organising to strip off in the spirit of body acceptance.
“(On) the weekend I struggled so much to eat because I thought I might have to take my clothes off today,” Bailey said, as Wightman admitted he hardly saw her eat during their time together.
“It’s a lifelong challenge, it’s about control, it’s about my life has been so out of control that it’s the one thing I could feel like I knew what I was doing but it’s terrible and people die.
“And socially the amount of hate I get; I never talk about my body online because I’m thin. And people think they want to be thin, right, but when you starve yourself to death that’s not cute.”
Bailey, a mother of three sons, said her girlfriends often staged interventions in the past when they noticed warning signs.
If you, or someone you know, needs help contact the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 ED HOPE or visit butterfly.org.au
Taking on the trolls
Never one to cave in, Bailey has fought a war with trolls during her time on air.
In January 2020, just four months after the death of Pickwell, Bailey returned to Brisbane’s airwaves on Tuesday with 97.3 FM’s reinstated breakfast show Robin, Terry & Bob.
She said while the majority of listeners were overwhelmingly supportive of her decision to return to the network she was dumped from three years ago, some of the comments had been “nasty and personal”.
“You can’t do anything about trolls,” Bailey said at the time.
“I say this to my kids, when you dig deep to someone who is willing to put that out on a public space … It’s not about me. If you say something nasty, then that takes a certain type of person.
“What people think of me is none of my business. I really don’t care. How miserable must you be?”
When asked why she believed listeners were often critical of her, Bailey responded: “I don’t think I’m special – I’ve had a lot more personal stuff happen and people have an opinion about personal issues.”
‘When you know, you know’
Robin Bailey and her co-hosts in August 2025 spilled the beans on how long they waited before having sex with their partners.
After chatting with her now-partner Olivier Massart for a month, she said, “The first time we met, it was like a weekend.”
Kip teased, “Did you make it through lunch? … Oh my God, I’m right!” and she laughed, “Yes, you are!”
Kip replied, “Wow. No mucking around,” to which Robin simply said, “You know. When you know, you know!”
