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Jackie “O” Henderson demanded ARN’s chairman and chief executive intervene to stop Kyle Sandilands treating her like they were in an “abusive relationship” after he berated her by claiming she was on “period time” six months before their working partnership blew up.
Documents released by the Federal Court on Wednesday show Henderson complained about Sandilands’ behaviour after an August 2025 broadcast where he berated her in similar terms to the February 2026 incident that ended their working partnership.
In the documents, Henderson demands more than $82 million in compensation from KIIS’ owner ARN for tearing up her contract and claims the station breached workplace rules by effectively retaliating against her after she exercised her rights to complain about Sandilands.
Henderson’s lawyers also claim she was not offered a new show by ARN before the company terminated her contract on March 3, despite the network telling the stock market it had. And they argue that the radio network made no attempt to intervene during Sandilands’ on air rant directed toward her on February 20.
Text messages in the filing show Henderson told executives at ARN following the February incident Sandilands’ comments claiming she had an obsession with astrology and was acting unprofessionally were “unfair, inappropriate and completely unprovoked”.
In August, Henderson raised concerns with KIIS FM station manager Derek Bargwanna following listener complaints, the document says.
The statement of claim was released by the Federal Court after Henderson filed her case last week, claiming she was unfairly terminated after she told the company she could no longer work with her long-term co-host Kyle Sandilands.
The document lists a number of communications showing senior ARN executives were aware of Henderson’s complaints in September last year, supporting claims the February 20 incident this year was not an isolated conflict.
“On 11 September 2025, Ms Henderson sent a text message to Mr Bargwanna, in response, and said, ‘Yeah it’s fine today. But let’s make sure [chairman] Hamish [McLennan] and [then-chief executive] Ciaran [Davis] start to think about how to address this. We are getting a lot of complaints from listeners, calling it an abusive relationship, women especially. I can send you though some [of] the examples’,” the document states.
The same day, Bargwanna told Henderson that he was “all over that” and had spoken with both Davis and McLennan twice about the issue.
The document also claims Henderson had made prior complaints about Sandilands’ conduct the month prior on August 20, when he made “offensive and degrading” comments about her personal and dating life, including that Sandilands said “you’ll never find anyone because there is, all of these requirements that you have…“.
Then, in February, Henderson allegedly texted ARN chief executive Michael Stephenson and Kerri Elstub, chief content officer, to make clear her unhappiness at Sandilands on-air remarks.
She said his broadside was “unfair, inappropriate and completely unprovoked” and asked what the network was doing to prevent it happening again.
Henderson filed the proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia last week, demanding compensation of “at least” $82,250,000 after claiming her contract was unfairly terminated. Her statement of claim alleges that the ASX announcement detailing her termination on March 3 included “misleading and deceptive statements” under Australian Consumer Law.
In a statement to the ASX last Tuesday, ARN said that Henderson had made “psychosocial health and safety and bullying complaints” to the station in relation to Sandilands’ conduct toward her both on February 20, the day of the pair’s now infamous on-air fall out, and before then as well. It told the market she had declared she could not work with Sandilands, effectively ending her contract.
The matter is the second lawsuit ARN is facing. Sandilands filed similar proceedings in the Federal Court last month after his own contract was also torn up over what the company said was “serious misconduct” relating to his behaviour toward Henderson on February 20 and before.
In total, the duo are demanding more than $170 million in payouts, around two-and-a-half times ARN’s entire market value as of Wednesday morning. ARN’s share price opened at $0.24 on Wednesday, having been as high as above $1 when the duo signed their 10-year, $200 million contract in mid-2023, announced later that year.
Sandilands’ own statement of claim said that the broadcast, in which he said Henderson was “off with the fairies” and that everyone in ARN’s offices thought she didn’t “give a shit”, was “congruent with the style, tone and nature of the Show” and the robust character ARN “desired” from them.
ARN, which has said it will fight both broadcasters’ claims, is expected to rely on correspondence sent by representatives for Henderson on March 3, the day Sandilands was suspended and Henderson’s contract was terminated. In this communication, Henderson is said to have made allegations of “prior conduct” by Sandilands, according to ARN’s lawyer Tom Blackburn SC in court last month.
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