Kyle Sandilands has addressed Stephanie Rice’s current ‘feud’ with his radio show after a prank went wrong more than 10 years ago.
speaking in The Kyle and Jackie O Show On Monday morning, the 53-year-old wished the former Olympic swimming champion a happy 36th birthday before asking him about their fight.
‘I like Stephanie Rice. She’s always been sweet, but I don’t think she’s a fan of the show for some reason. Was there any problem? Kyle asked his producer Peter Deppeler, aka Intern Pete.
Pete explained that the dispute was sparked in 2014 by a false announcement that the gold medalist, who retired from competitive swimming a few months earlier, was returning to the sport.
“We took over his Twitter account and said he was going to get back into professional swimming… And then everyone took it too seriously,” Pete explained.
Kyle Sandilands (pictured) addressed Stephanie Rice’s current ‘feud’ with his radio show after a prank went wrong more than 10 years ago.
The dispute began in 2014 over a false announcement that the gold medalist, who retired from competitive swimming a few months earlier, was returning to the sport. In the photo: Stephanie Rice during the London Olympic Games, 2012.
“She had to come out and say, ‘I was just lying, it was a prank by Kyle and Jackie O.'”
Confused, Kyle asked what the problem was and pointed out that the radio show was to blame for the prank.
Stephanie had been playing a game with the pranksters called Text Or Tweet, which required her to choose whether to allow them to send a Tweet from her Twitter account or send a text message to anyone on her phone.
The gold medalist, who was 26 years old at the time, opted for them to send a Tweet to her 133,000 followers announcing that she was returning to the pool.
“After much discussion among family and friends, today I announce my official return to the pool,” the tweet read.
“I feel like I’m screwed either way,” she said on the show at the time, upon learning that the “text” would mean Kyle and Jackie O would message her ex-boyfriend Eamon Sullivan and ask if they could give her another chance. their romance. Shooting.
Stephanie had been playing a game called Text Or Tweet, which required her to choose whether to let them send a Tweet from her Twitter account or send a text message to anyone from her phone.
The gold medalist, who was 26 years old at the time, opted for them to send a Tweet to her 133,000 followers announcing that she was returning to the pool.
‘I don’t want them to text me from my phone because there are too many important contacts on there!’ Stephanie said.
The tweet was picked up by several Australian media outlets, including radio stations B105 and 2Day FM, the former home of the Kyle and Jackie O Show, which also reported on the alleged return.
Brisbane station B105 broadcast the announcement, while 2Day FM included it in its morning sports bulletin, saying: “Some big swimming news has just hit Twitter.”
It wasn’t long before the tweet gained real momentum and, despite radio hosts telling her she couldn’t delete it or tweet that it wasn’t true for 24 hours, the brunette decided to set the record straight.
She tweeted: “I’m really sorry to disappoint everyone, but the above tweet was not posted by me and there is no truth to it.” @kiis1065 took my phone to play.’
Stephanie then added, “I feel horrible that it gave false hope to so many of my amazing fans, but I’m not going back.”
And when the chaos began to calm down, he wrote: ‘Thank you for always supporting me and my career. You are the best!!! I’m sorry once again and I know I’m really upset about this.’
Stephanie announced her retirement from swimming in 2013, saying: “London was really tough.
It wasn’t long before the tweet gained real momentum and despite radio hosts telling her she couldn’t delete it or tweet that it wasn’t true for 24 hours, the brunette decided to set the record straight.
Stephanie announced her retirement in 2013 saying: “London was really hard”
“There were so many things that went wrong for me in that preparation and it was like I was trying so hard to make everything perfect and everything went wrong.”
Last month, Stephanie confirmed she is single following her split from Dane Christison, 41.
The Queensland native, who has accumulated three gold medals and three world records, moved to Dubai in November 2023 with the former soldier, but announced that she is “happy” after the breakup.
She also deleted images of her boyfriend from her Instagram page in March and hadn’t mentioned him in a few weeks.
Last month, Stephanie confirmed she is single following her split from former soldier Dane Christison. In the photo together