Kyle Sandilands’ former gofer Alex Reid stars in Byron Baes

In his pursuit of becoming the next Kyle Sandilands, Byron Baes star Alex Reid has left behind a trail of false claims and bitter feuds, writes Annette Sharp.

In the opening scenes of Netflix’s unwatchable Byron Baes, a dapper little man purporting to be Byron’s local talent agent provides a career update that reopened wounds across Sydney.

“Lots of crystals,” Alex Reid says, moving rocks from a table to make space for an electric piano.
“ … (the crystals are) not doing anything. Still single, still poor, haven’t worked …”

Fourteen years after a handful of Sydney event organisers went on a rampage to expose the then 21-year-old Reid’s fairly harmless though false claims to being connected to one of Europe’s richest banking families, the brazen self-promoter is back, in flash new threads, but still chasing his long-held dream of becoming the next Kyle Sandilands.

Back when he was “Alexander Rothschild-Reid”.

Alex Reid in Byron Baes.

The former tetchy gofer to radio shock jock Sandilands and problematic ex-LA housemate of Sophie Monk has been exhumed and repurposed for his 15 minutes of fame on the Netflix program.

Reid’s re-emergence last week coincided with a raft of conflicting new claims – among them that Reid is the producer of Byron Baes and that he conceived the program concept before pitching it to Netflix.

On Friday a Netflix spokesman was happy to set the record straight re Reid’s affiliation with its new reality show.

“Alex was involved in the series as a participant only,” he said.

He worked as a PA to Sophie Monk.

He has been accused of gatecrashing parties in the past.

Reid is not new to controversy.

Back in 2008 he made headlines after trying to reinvent himself as the aristocratic sounding Alexander Rothschild-Reid, the “head of Rothschild’s media division”.

Though apparently just an attempt to gain entry to Sydney parties, the ruse blew up spectacularly after someone claiming to be his assistant started writing to Sydney publicists announcing Rothschild-Reid’s arrival in Sydney.

“I am making inquiries for my superior, Alexander Rothschild-Reid,’’ the email read. “
(He) has recently moved from the UK to head the Rothschild’s media division, ELOM Holdings.

“Alexander is 22 and coupled with an appreciation of (an aftershave brand) would like to meet like-minded people in Sydney. If you would be so kind as to forward an invite for the event tomorrow night?’’

After initially scoring a handful of invitations, an unnamed woman blew the whistle on Reid in a group email outing him as a “social wannabe”.

“(He) is trying to scab his way into all the parties and is in fact not affiliated with any organisation and will run your (sic) bar dry with his many Facebook-plus ones. He destroyed my party last week. Just a warning,’’ she wrote.

Reid denied the claim but confirmed the email contained false information while Rothschild Australia poured water on an association.

The episode didn’t injure Reid’s employment prospects with Sandilands yet within a few years Reid had left his mentor’s side and moved to the US where in 2013 he was working as Sophie Monk’s PA.

On her return to Australia in 2014 Monk refused to comment on rumours she had a bitter fallout with Reid, who had moved into her LA house.

Reid kept a low profile in the years that followed until he reappeared in 2018 on the Seven Network’s talent show All Together Now.