Radio host Kyle Sandilands has admitted he neglected his health for years before recently suffering a brain aneurysm.
The breakfast radio star will undergo urgent brain surgery and will be off the airwaves for up to two months following the health scare.
After revealing his diagnosis on the airwaves during The Kyle and Jackie O Show this morning, Sandilands told 9News he blames it on making the wrong choices.
“I’ve had a hard life, I haven’t really looked after myself that well,” he said.
Fellow KIIS FM star Jackie “O” Henderson said she will support her co-host as he puts his health first.
“We’ll just do it one step at a time and go from there,” Henderson said.
“But his health is the most important thing.”
Neurologist Professor Steve Vucic told 9News an aneurysm – while serious – is very treatable.
“This is how aneurysms manifest themselves, with a sudden onset thunder-clap like headache, patients are very sick,” Vucic said.
“You’d rather know you have an aneurysm and you can monitor it, rather than presenting to the emergency with a stroke.”
Sandilands shared the news earlier today, alongside breakfast co-host Henderson, after he missed Friday’s show due to the illness.
”On Friday, I was told by my medical team, which sounds like I’m already very sick, to have a medical team, that I have a brain aneurysm and it requires immediate attention, brain surgery,” he said.
“If you just tuned in to us after all these years, lap it up. And if you’re in Melbourne, you’re in the part, you’re coming to the party too late. You may get your wish. I may be dead.”
The 53-year-old did not say when he would be undergoing surgery.
“It’s not a blockage. It’s like, imagine your blood vessel is the garden hose, and the garden hose is weak and it blisters out like a big bubble, you know, like a puncture in it, like a bike tyre with a big bubble that bubbles the aneurysm, so it’s not blocked,” he said.
“It’s like, it’s expanded and if it bursts, it’s either a vegetable in the wheelchair, or dead.”
Sandilands reflected on his diagnosis and said the aneurysm was a wake-up call.
“It’s just overwhelming… I don’t want to leave a wife and a little child behind,” he said.
The Kyle & Jackie O Show, which debuted on Melbourne airwaves in April last year, airs weekdays from 6am to 10am on KIIS FM.
They made the expansion into the Melbourne radio scene after achieving two decades of success in Sydney.
Sandilands has also gained recognition as a judge on several popular television shows, including Australian Idol, Big Brother, and Australia’s Got Talent.
