Kyle Sandilands’ wild private jet confession

The radio host has revealed how much he spent on private jet charters while filming Australian Idol, saying he was desperate to see his family.

Kyle Sandilands has revealed the great lengths he went to to make it home to his family every night while filming Australian Idol.

The 51-year-old KIIS FM co-host, who welcomed his first child, son Otto, with fiance Tegan Kynaston in September last year, travelled around Australia at the back-end of 2022 to shoot auditions for the rebooted Seven show.

Speaking on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast, Sandilands opened up about his softer side since becoming a father, saying he chartered private jets at $100,000 a pop to fly home to Sydney instead of staying the night in another city.

Kyle Sandilands and baby Otto.

Kyle Sandilands and fiance Tegan Kynaston.

“I want my family with me …” Sandilands said. “Even while we were filming Australian Idol auditions, all the judges were like, ‘Oh we’re off to the Gold Coast, how much free time have we got? Oh let’s spend the night [here], let’s have a travel day,’ and I was like …

“I had to hire a private jet to fly out of the Gold Coast at 11.30 at night so I could get home to see my child and fiance. I only wanted to be with them.

“And it cost like $100,000 flying here, to Adelaide, to the Gold Coast, to Canberra … They were like, ‘Oh, there’s the Idol budget’. But I didn’t want to wait on the Gold Coast for another day.”

Kyle Sandilands, Meghan Trainor, Amy Shark and Harry Connick Jr make up the judges on Australian Idol.

Sandilands, who proposed to Kynaston in January 2022, said his soon-to-be-wife was hesitant about his filming schedule as she prepared to welcome their baby.

“Before we had the baby, Tegan was like, ‘Let me get this right, you’ll be vanishing for six or seven weeks as we’re bringing our child home from hospital?’

“And I just said, ‘Yep, this is the schedule, but I’m gonna do this so I can be home more often.

“It was a breeze, she’s a really great mum and I loved coming home.”

Sandilands, who first starred as a judge on Idol from 2005 until it finished in 2009, is the only past judge to return to the refreshed franchise, which premiered this week.

He makes up the judging panel alongside Amy Shark, Harry Connick Jr. and Meghan Trainor.

Originally published as Kyle Sandilands’ wild private jet confession