Kyle Sandilands has addressed Stephanie Rice’s ongoing ‘feud’ with his radio show after a prank gone wrong more than 10 years ago.
Speaking on The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Monday morning, the 53-year-old wished the former Olympic swimming champion a happy 36th birthday before asking about their falling out.
‘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 an issue?’ Kyle asked his producer Peter Deppeler, aka Intern Pete.
Pete explained the feud sparked back in 2014 over a hoax announcement that the gold medallist, who retired from competitive swimming a few months prior, was making a return to the sport.
‘We took over her Twitter account and we said that she was gonna go back to professional swimming… And then everyone took it way too seriously,’ Pete explained.
‘She had to come out and say “I was only lying, it was a Kyle & Jackie O prank”.’
A confused Kyle asked what the issue was, noting that the radio show copped the 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 to anyone on her phone.
The gold medallist, who was 26 at the time, opted for them to send a Tweet to her 133,000 followers announcing that she was getting back in the pool.
‘After much discussion between family and friends today I’m announcing 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 the ‘text’ would mean Kyle and Jackie O would message her ex-boyfriend Eamon Sullivan and ask if they could give their romance another shot.
‘I don’t want you guys to text off my phone because there are a few too many important contacts in 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, also reported the supposed comeback.
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Brisbane station B105 broadcast the announcement while 2Day FM included it in their morning sports bulletin, saying, ‘Some big news out of swimming has just hit Twitter’.
It wasn’t long before the tweet had taken on some real momentum and despite being told by the radio presenters that she’s not allowed to take it down or tweet that it’s untrue for 24 hours, the brunette decided to set the record straight.
She tweeted: ‘I’m so sorry to disappoint everyone but the previous tweet wasn’t posted by me and has no truth to it. @kiis1065 took my phone for a game.’
Stephanie then added: ‘I feel horrible that that has given so many of my incredible fans false hope, but I am not making a comeback.
And as the chaos started to calm down she wrote: ‘Thank you for always supporting me and my career. You guys are the best!!! Sorry once again & know that I am really upset about this.’
Stephanie announced her retirement from swimming in 2013, saying: ‘London was really tough.
‘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 so perfect and everything went wrong.’
Last month, Stephanie confirmed that she is single following her split with Dane Christison, 41.
The Queenslander, who has collected three gold medals and three world records, moved to Dubai in November 2023 with the former soldier but announced she is ‘happy’ following the break up.
She’d also deleted images of her boyfriend from her Instagram page back in March and had not mentioned him in some weeks.