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Sandilands: I don’t do sorry, aIthough I went too far. But worrying about sponsors isn’t my job

Kyle SandilandsKyle Sandilands has given his first detailed interview since the furore over his attack on News Limited journalist Alison Stephenson. It will appear in tomorrow’s edition of The Weekend Australian Magazine.

In last year’s on air outburst on 2Day FM, he described the journalist as a “piece of shit” and made personal comments about her appearance.

According to a preview of the article published in The Australian today, Sandilands says: “I don’t really do sorry,” before conceding that he did go too far.

Sandilands also appears to claim in the interview that his comments were a reaction to a story by Stephenson being unfairly critical about bad ratings for his TV show.

He told The Australian: “We put it on and the ratings weren’t bad, not for that time of night, and then they start falling because people go to bed or whatever, and then I see what News Limited has written, and it’s all ‘oh, Kyle’s show was a big failure.”

However, Sandilands’ attack on Stephenson actually aired two and a half hours before the ratings were released. Stephenson’s story had not discussed the ratings, but rather initial comments on social media about the show by viewers.

(Update: see comments below from The Australian’s Caroline Overington for further context on this)

Reaction to Sandilands’ comments led to sponsor Holden and a string of advertisers pull their support for the show. This year, new sponsor Jenny Craig pulled out after just one day. In the interview with The Australian, Sandilands says that worrying about sponsors is not part of his role. He says:

“People seem to think I spent a lot of time worrying about (it) but I basically don’t think about it, because it’s not my job to go out there and get sponsors.”

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