‘You’re insane’: Nick Kyrgios tells Louis Theroux the pyramids aren’t man-made

Nick Kyrgios is known for dividing opinion – and a chat with renowned documentarian Louis Theroux about who built the pyramids and whether the Earth is round hasn’t disappointed.

It’s no surprise that in a new episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Kyrgios divulged a few controversial thoughts along with revisiting his struggles with mental health and accusations he’s underachieved in his career.

Nick Kyrgios (right) on The Louis Theroux Podcast.Credit: The Louis Theroux Podcast

Theroux got Kyrgios riffing by asking if the pyramids of Egypt were built by humans.

“No, I don’t [think so]. Impossible,” Kyrgios said. “That’s insanity. The fact that, how is that possible they [Egyptians] got every measurement correct, and they’re all aligned.

“And ‘they did it with rolling large stones on logs’ is an insane statement. Why are the doors so big? Like who needs to walk through the doors if they’re that big? I don’t know who it was. I just don’t think that we were capable. It’s 2024, and we can’t even all get along. And you think that we built the pyramids? You’re insane. That’s insanity stuff.”

The 2022 Wimbledon finalist was quizzed on other topics aimed at eliciting further left-field opinions.

Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios at a tournament in 2018 in London.Credit: Getty Images

The moon landing? “I have my thoughts on it,” Kyrgios said. “I just think it was interesting the Americans did it first because they had not one successful rocket that ever took off and then all of a sudden they were on the moon. You can read about it.”

Is the Earth round or flat? “I’d probably be inclined to saying it’s round, but I’m also not surprised if it was the other thing either. Maybe we need to have a beer and have this off-record,” Kyrgios joked.

But Theroux’s interview with Kyrgios went much deeper than the kind of conspiracies you’d find on YouTube and in Reddit threads.

The two openly spoke about the 29-year-old tennis player’s struggle with mental health, why he wants to retire differently to greats like Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, and accusations he hasn’t lived up to his potential.

Nill Kyrgios with her son, Nick, during his 27th birthday celebrations at their family home in Canberra.

Having not played a singles match for a year and a half due to injuries, Kyrgios said he wanted to retire at the right time if his body wasn’t able to do it any more.

“I look at how Andy Murray’s doing it now, and how Rafael is going out. I don’t want to be like that either, I don’t want to be kind of crawling to the finish line in a sense,” Kyrgios said.

“What Andy Murray’s achieved in this sport is second to basically no one, like, unless you’re Novak, Federer, or Nadal. Like, the next person is Andy Murray. It’s like you’ve achieved everything. You deserve to go out, I think, a little bit more gracefully than he’s done.

“I think that the surgeries, the pain, it’s just not worth it, in my opinion ... I don’t want to go out like that. I’d rather go out knowing that I gave the people a good glimpse of my peak ... I don’t have to go out and scrape the barrel of every single tennis ball ever.”

‘You think that we built the pyramids? You’re insane. That’s insanity stuff.’

Nick Kyrgios to Louis Theroux

Kyrgios, who has previously said he intends to play at the 2025 Australian Open to “shut people up”, once again hit back at people who have criticised his career.

“When people say I’ve underachieved in my career, I’m like, my mum grew up in like a wooden shack [in Malaysia] and my dad came [to Australia] by boat. Is it really underachieving? Or is it just like finding a way through all this mess and making it work?” Kyrgios said.

“It’s not easy. It’s not like I just picked out professional tennis player from a hat and that was my life. It was like, I’ve worked 10 times harder than majority of people. Anywhere. Majority of people anywhere. If someone did my day of training, they would be in hospital for sure.”

Kyrgios has previously spoken of his mental health battles, that at times has included alcohol and drug abuse, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, and admitted to Theroux that he had to work every day to stay on track.

“I fight it most days. Like, I don’t wake up feeling amazing. I feel like I know my steps to get me out of my bad thinking now,” he said.

“I feel like I could go back into those habits in an instant. That’s how it feels. I feel like I could do those things, but I don’t want to. Like, before, I didn’t have any resistance. I don’t want to do that now.”

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