The Project’s Peter Helliar caught Covid from Kate Langbroek

Peter Helliar has revealed he caught Covid from one of his Project colleagues, with the star in question recently making headlines for their vaccine stance.

Peter Helliar has revealed he caught Covid from radio star Kate Langbroek, who has occasionally appeared on The Project panel with the comedian since returning from Italy this year.

The pair were speaking on KIIS FM’s 3pm Pick Up on Thursday when the confession came out, with Langbroek – who has completed her isolation and recovered from the virus – coming forward with her diagnosis for the first time.

It comes a week after fellow The Project guest star Chrissie Swan also tested positive, though it is not known who she caught it from yet. It’s also shortly after Langbroek made headlines for an on-air clash with Hamish Macdonald over her stand on vaccine mandates.

Langbroek returned to Australia from Bologna at the beginning of this year.

Speaking to Langbroek and Monty Dimond for their regular Thursday segment, “Co-incidental Thursday”, Helliar, who opened up about falling ill on The Project, coyly began by admitting the source of his infection.

“This stems back to what you talked about on The Project when you talked about how you had Covid … Now that is in fact our first coincidence really that I haven’t talked about before. Where did you possibly get your Covid from?” Dimond asked.

“I possibly caught it from Kate Langbroek,” the Project panellist slowly responded with a laugh.

Launching into his “coincidental” story, Helliar explained that he’d been staying in his sister’s beach house in self-quarantine. To pass the time, he’d read Langbroek’s memoir Ciao Bella! Six take Italy, about the star’s big move to Bologna just before Covid turned the world upside down.

Langbroek, who is vaccinated, said she was against mandatory jabs in workplaces on The Project in September.

“I finished your wonderful book, got out (of isolation) and walked down the street to find a cafe … The very first cafe I walked into, I was chatting to the lady who made my coffee,” he continued, explaining that he had told the woman he’d just come out of quarantine.

He went on, “[She said] ‘My nephew just did isolation, he just got back from overseas’, and I said ‘Where was he?’ and she said ‘Italy’ and I said ‘Whereabouts?’ and she said ‘Bologna’.”.

As it turned out, the woman’s nephew was a friend of the Langbroeks called Marshall, who Kate had met in Italy and written about in her memoir.

“It was the Marshall who I’d been reading about in your book!” said Helliar.

“What are the odds of that?” Langbroek exclaimed.

“Of all those things. Of me having infected you, of you going to your sister’s house, of you going to the shop at the end of the street … of telling a stranger in a shop that you’ve just had Covid … she wasn’t alarmed at all?” she added.

“I’m quite happy to let people know … We’re all going to get it eventually,” said Helliar.

Helliar has recently completed Covid isolation.

Langbroek and her husband of 17 years, Peter Lewis, relocated to Bologna with their four children, Lewis, Sunday, Artie and Jan, in January 2019.

It was supposed to be a ‘family gap year’, but they decided to extend the break for an additional 12 months before coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

The radio personality only moved back to Melbourne at the beginning of 2021 after she was forced to live under Italy’s strict Covid lockdowns last year.

Since then, she’s has made headlines with her controversial vaccine stance, revealing on The Project that she is against mandatory vaccinations in workplaces.

“I’m not anti-vax, but I’m very uncomfortable prescribing mandatorily to people what they have to put in their bodies to work or participate in – I’m just not,” said Langbroek, who suggested her reticence may be due to her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness.

“They had the concept of disfellowshipping, which I find so repugnant.

“I hate the thought that people will be disfellowshipped from their lives because they have hesitation or doubts about the vaccine,” she said.

Speaking to Stellar in October, Langbroek – who said she and her family members were vaccinated – revealed that she’d felt like the odd one out during an earlier off-camera discussion about mandatory vaccination for some workplaces.

Langbroek appeared on The Project a number of times from Italy last year.

Last month, shortly after Helliar returned to the panel, Chrissie Swan tested positive to the virus as well.

The NOVA radio host told her 228,000 Instagram followers she had returned a positive test, saying “fatigue” was her worst symptom so far.

“I feel basically fine so far – worst is the fatigue (though I think I’ve been tired for 20 years so I’m match fit),” she joked.

“I’m double vaxxed, always checked in with the QR codes, have contacted EVERYONE and have isolated since yesterday afternoon so as not to spread it any further,” Swan assured fans.

Swan told her followers last week that she’d contracted Covid.

“I’ll be back on the airwaves soon – but from home. Update over! Don’t worry your pretty little heads about me.”

Swan’s diagnosis comes after Peter Helliar – who Swan occasionally appears on The Project with – revealed on November 13 that he, too, had tested positive for Covid.

After his time self-quarantining, Helliar returned to the show on November 16, with Swan appearing on the show that same night, and joining the panel again two days later.

Originally published as The Project’s Peter Helliar caught Covid from Kate Langbroek