‘Some loon on Facebook’: Gold 104.3 radio host Christian O’Connell blasts marriage split rumours

Radio host Christian O’Connell has slammed rumours circulating on social media that his marriage has broken down, blaming “some loon on Facebook”.

Christian O'Connell with his wife Sarah and daughters Ruby and Lois. Picture: Tony Gough

Radio host Christian O’Connell has blasted hurtful rumours that his marriage has broken down.

Speculation was rife on a Facebook fan page for the Gold 104.3 show that O’Connell and his wife Sarah had broken up and he was going to take an extended break from the job.

On Monday morning O’Connell said his wife was almost in tears.

“Friday night, I get a phone call from my 18-year-old daughter, Lois, and it’s like 11:15pm,’’ O’Connell said.

Christian O’Connell said the rumour was started by “some loon on Facebook”.

“When your kids call and it’s that time of the evening, your first thought is something’s happened. Straight away, I’m like, ‘are you okay? Is everything alright?’ She was like, ‘is there something going on with you and mum?’

“I am utterly confused. I’m like, ‘what do you mean?’ She goes, ‘well, a friend of mine who now lives in Holland has just texted me. Her mum has seen a message on Facebook. There’s a statement saying that you and mum are breaking up. Is this true?’ I start to laugh.

“She sends me a screenshot from Facebook from a fan page of this show and it says ‘Christian and Sarah have separated. He’s expected to be taking an extended break.’ Right. My wife, when she saw this, genuinely, she was almost in tears, really upset.

“With this job, sometimes you get people say stuff about you. It comes with the territory. It shouldn’t, but it does. I laughed it off right and said (to my wife), ‘you don’t need to worry, this is some loon on Facebook’. I turned the light off five minutes later and my wife goes to me, ‘you’re just going to go to sleep?’ I went, ‘yeah.’”

O’Connell said for the record “we are fine, more than fine”.

He said his wife was worried people would think where there’s smoke there’s fire.