The staggering amount of money Jackie O earns per year revealed

Jacqueline Ellen Last, or ‘Jackie O’ as she’s known to Australian audiences, is famous for being one half of one of Australia’s most well-known FM breakfast radio duo.

Born 31 January 1975, the 45 year-old radio and TV personality, currently hosts The Kyle and Jackie O Show from Sydney for KIIS FM, alongside co-host, Kyle Sandilands.

One of the country’s most popular radio identities, she has also fronted a number of television shows, most recently appearing as a ‘Guesser’ on the Australian version of the hugely successful reality TV series, The Masked Singer.

How Jackie O got into radio

Jackie O was still a teenager when she first caught the eye of radio execs – or, more specifically, her soon-to-be-husband, radio DJ ‘Ugly’ Phil O’Neil.

At the time O’Neil was the night host of Gold Coast’s Sea FM, and, according to one story, O first connected with the super-popular radio star when she called his Gold Coast radio show to try to win tickets to a gig in 1993.

At the time O was 18 and reportedly working as an “office girl” and sandwich maker at a deli, but upped sticks and moved to Canberra with her new, much older, boyfriend a few months later.

O’Neill was offered a radio gig there, and O became his somewhat-reluctant “phone girl”, answering telephones while he was on-air.

The pair were a hit and were subsequently invited to host a show for Triple M Adelaide together, where O'Neil suggested she take up the nickname 'Jackie O'.

They blew the competition out of the water and were quickly snapped up by Fox FM Melbourne. The pair went on to host the national Hot30 countdown from 1996, before O’Neill abruptly quit his job – and his marriage – and moved back to the UK.

Jackie O’s first husband

Phil O’Neill carved a place for himself as one of the country’s most successful – and highest-earning – radio presenters in the 1990s.

He married Jackie O in 1994 after just a year of dating. The pair were together until 1999 when O’Neill sensationally left his job and left his wife to take up a radio gig in the UK.

In 2017 he explained the decision to the Gotta Start Somewhere podcast: “It became all-consuming. I was tired of doing the Hot30,” he explained. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m 37 years old and I’m mates with the guys from Hanson who are 15. I’m too old for this.'”

O’Neil returned to Australia in 2008 to present Triple M’s Afternoons and as My Generation host. He moved back to the UK last year.

How Jackie O met Kyle Sandilands

After O's then-husband and co-star Phil O’Neil headed back to the UK, a replacement was sought to appear with her on-air.

A number of people were auditioned before radio execs decided to throw then-Brisbane announcer Kyle Sandilands in the deep end, putting him straight to air with her. It didn’t take long before the wanna-be “shock jock” was making waves.

"He went on air and he said the 'F-word' as soon as he was on air in the opener," O has famously said. "I didn't know he was going to do that, but he knew in his head he was going to do that to shock me."

Sandilands knew EXACTLY what he was doing, admitting he hoped to make an impact from the get-go.

"Jackie comes on … and she introduced me and I just said (live on air): 'Look, I've spoken to the boss and apparently if I don't say f**k everything will be fine,’” he recently told the ‘Game Changers’ radio podcast.

"She died. Her whole skin changed colour. She was horrified and I thought it was excellent."

Though she famously tried to have him sacked after the first two shows they did together, by the third show they were on the same wave-length. And it’s been smooth sailing – sort of – ever since.

"He came back the next night and was amazing and we just gelled and it clicked,” O has said, adding her life would be “very different without Kyle.”

The two, on air together now for over 20 years, have remained close friends, and despite the numerous controversies their show has generated – and there have been A LOT – they’ve always had one another’s backs.

Despite a move from 2Day FM to rival station KIIS FM in 2014, the pair are still one of the most successful FM breakfast show duos in the Sydney market.

Jackie O’s second husband

After her split from first husband O’Neil, O has admitted she felt extremely anxious about her new-found single status. But she needn’t have worried – in March 2000, when Jackie was 25, she met English backpacker and photojournalist Lee Henderson. The pair met when O clocked him while leaving a bar – and was instantly smitten.

“We were about to leave, and it's like everything around me went quiet and the whole room came to a standstill,” she has said. “I saw gorgeous Lee across the room.”

The pair were married in 2003, and their daughter Catalina ‘Kitty’ Henderson was born in 2010.

In October 2018, after 18 years together, the couple decided to amicably separate, their announcement taking many by surprise.

“It's not a decision we took lightly at all,” she said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show at the time. “Lee and I have been so lucky that our separation has been extremely amicable. It's not something that happened overnight for us... We wanted to keep that private for as long as we possibly could.

“A separation is never easy, so I feel lucky that we were able to get through that period of time dealing with it on our own.”

Jackie O’s daughter, Kitty

Though their breakup was difficult, both O and Henderson have gone out of their way to remain friends for the sake of their daughter, now nine.

According to reports, they still have weekly ‘family dinners’, and spend time together regularly. Not long after Kitty’s birth, O told a magazine that becoming a mum was the best thing to ever happen to her.

“When I became a mother, it felt like everything fell into place,” she told New Idea magazine. “I have absolutely adored every single day, and I can't tell you how much it has changed me as well.”

Jackie O’s TV shows

While her radio show has always been her number one priority, over the years O has also tried her hand at hosting a number of television shows.

Her first foray into TV began in 1999 when she fronted the now-legendary first series of Aussie reality series, Pop Stars – which helped discover Sophie Monk.

Sadly, not all her TV shows have been as impactful – anyone remember Australian Princess? She hosted that series from 2005-2007 before becoming a cast member on Nine’s The Nation (remember that? Nup, us neither!) and Surprise Surprise Gotcha, which was supposed to be Australia’s answer to MTV’s Punk’d (it most definitely wasn’t).

And who could forget Undercover Angels, a spin on Charlie’s Angels, but with Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe as the man-in-charge, getting his ‘angels’ to go out and do good deeds in the community. That show now has the spurious honour of being crowned ‘The Worst Show In Aussie TV History’!

In 2008, her and Sandilands co-hosted the newly revamped Big Brother for Nine, which was met with less-than-stellar ratings.

She then took a decade off TV before appearing on last year’s The Masked Singer. She was the one judge who consistently got things right, and, thankfully, the show was a massive hit.

Jackie O’s net worth

You can’t underestimate just how successful Jackie O’s radio career has been.

Across various networks, and fronting a number of different shows across different time slots, she has consistently outrated her competition.

KIIS FM fought hard for her and Sandilands to join the network in 2013 after contract negotiations fell over at 2Day FM – they made the duo an offer of $10million to join the Australian Radio Network (ARN).

At the time their show Kyle & Jackie O on 2Day FM was worth about $30million in advertising revenue – the subsequent drop in ratings reportedly cost the network millions.

In October last year, Kyle and Jackie extended their contracts with ARN in what has been described as ‘ The biggest media deal in Australian history’.

Their new contracts mean they will stay on air until 2024, and they will earn $7-8million each per year to host their four-hour breakfast radio show.

That would see them make over $39,000 per radio show.

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