Harry Connick Jr. calls Kyle Sandilands ‘tricky’ as he tries to discuss rumoured feud on-air

Kyle Sandilands and Harry Connick Jr. attempted to hash it out on-air amid their rumoured ongoing feud.

Kyle Sandilands and Harry Connick Jr. have hashed it out on-air amid their rumoured ongoing feud.

The shock jock welcomed the singer on The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Wednesday morning to talk about his upcoming tour in Australia with his band, when Sandilands coyly steered the conversation towards their supposed beef.

“You know what I admire about Harry, and I’ve watched Harry too,” he told co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson when Connick Jr. was on the line.

“When you think some doesn't like you, you watch them, you, over-analyse them and you start getting in your head, ‘I wonder why he doesn’t like me?’”

Sandilands then said that he learnt some lessons from the singer during their time judging the rebooted Australian Idol earlier this year.

“What I do know about Harry, and he told the Idol contestants this last year, is read the room. You’ve got to perform to whoever is there, whether it’s an auditorium or it’s to three people on a TV show.”

Kyle Sandilands confronts Harry Connick Jr. on-air about their long-rumoured feud.

Harry Connick Jr. says he’s never had an issue with Sandilands. Picture: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Jazz At Lincoln Centre

Connick Jr did not seem to take notice of the praise as he felt Sandilands was being “tricky” by trying to stir the pot.

“I see how tricky you are, slipping in there that I don’t like you,” the star said on air. “I don’t know where you got that from. I do like you very much and I really enjoyed our time together. So I see you trying to flip that in there, but you’re not gonna get that past me, pal.”

Henderson said Sandilands may have been “paranoid”, while he agreed he “misread” the situation.

“So this whole time, I should’ve maybe asked,” he told Connick Jr, who replied: “I love my wife and kids, and I’ve been very lucky in may career. Life is too short for any kind of … I just love life. So when you say I don’t like you, I’m not sure where that comes from, but for the record, I do like you very much and so everything is cool from my end.”

Kyle Sandilands, Meghan Trainor, Amy Shark and Harry Connick Jr were the judges in the 2023 Australian Idol reboot.

While he accepted the explanation, Sandilands also remained slightly sceptical because Connick Jr “is a very good actor” after all, he said.

“But Kyle the thing about actors is we don’t lie – we tell the truth,” replied Connick J, who has appeared in film such as Hope Floats, PS I Love You and Copycat. “You gotta tell the truth in the scene because, if you’re lying, you’re not being true to your character.”

Sandilands then urged listeners to forget “everything I’ve ever said about Harry”.

The radio host has shared some details about their “prickly” relationship in the past, specifically revealing a disagreement they had about contestants’ pronouns on Idol.

Sandilands says he learnt a lot from his time on Australian Idol with Harry Connick Jr. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“Yes, we had a blow-up … It wasn’t a Michael Clarke, Karl Stefanovic situation,” Sandilands joked. “He rang me, I was leaving, I was climbing up the 3 or 4 steps to my plane while he was lined up for the airport going through security.

“I said to someone that he wanted the pronouns to be put onto the contestants’ sheets. I thought I heard him say to a producer, ‘We need the pronouns’ and I told someone on an interview, ‘Oh Harry’s going on about the pronouns.’

“Apparently, it wasn’t Harry. And he rang me and he took great offence.”

Sandilands said the phone call turned into a squabble which ended with him apologising while asserting that it was “no big deal”.

“I just thought, ‘What a flop’ and hung up,” he recalled, adding: “That was it. Friendship over.”

He went on to say that he and Connick Jr. “don’t really chat off the set”.

“He’s a busy guy, he enjoys his own company,” he said.

Originally published as Harry Connick Jr. calls Kyle Sandilands ‘tricky’ as he tries to discuss rumoured feud on-air