‘Kyle Sandilands was always there for me’: KIIS manager

Kyle Sandilands' manager Bruno Bouchet has described his greatest struggle — and in an unexpected twist, he has revealed how the KIIS FM host has helped him deal with his “lowest points” in psychiatric wards.

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If you know someone dealing with a mental condition, the advice from Kyle Sandilands’ manager Bruno Bouchet is to follow the approach of his boss.

Bouchet has worked with Sandilands for more than 10 years, first as a producer and now as his manger.

Bruno Bouchet in Potts Point. Picture: Justin Lloyd

During that time he was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has been admitted to “psychiatric wards more times than I can remember,” he told The Saturday Telegraph.

And each time, it’s been the KIIS radio host at the side of the father of one.

“When I’d be at my lowest points, waking up in a hospital I can’t leave, the phone would always ring as soon as I woke up.

“He’d always somehow be able to track me down and just talk to me normally. There was no making me feel like the victim, or saying, ‘You poor thing’. He was just talking to me as we normally talk as friends,” Bouchet said. “For me, at those times, that’s exactly what I needed.”

“Some people might not be aware Kyle has this soft and loyal side and I’ll forever be appreciative to him and how good he’s been to me and my family during those times.”

It’s an approach Bouchet says people who know someone with a mental illness should try.

“As a guy, I still find it difficult to talk about (mental illness).

“While it’s great there are services you can ring and resources you can find online, to be totally frank they don’t appeal for me to reach out to,” he said.

“But just listening is the perfect thing to do. You don’t have to give a solution.

Just getting things off your chest to someone who is not judgmental ... goes a lot further than people think.”

Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44, with men making up 75 per cent of the statistic.

In this Men’s Health Week, Bouchet says that while his condition is lifelong, it doesn’t have to stop him having a successful life.

“A lot of people have the thought people with mental illness are all hiding in their basements somewhere, listening to sad music, but they are in every walk of life.

“Mental illness doesn’t have to be something that holds you back from an incredibly high level,” he said.