'I'M A BIG SOFTIE NOW!'

THE AUSTRALIAN IDOL JUDGE ADMITS FATHERHOOD HAS CHANGED HIM

He might be used to early morning wake-up calls, but even Kyle Sandilands can admit that being woken up at the crack of dawn by a baby is brutal. “The radio is on holidays, so now it’s my turn for the early mornings – since I’ve had four months of no early morning requirements at all,” the new dad explains when WHO speaks with him during his summer break from KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O Show. “So much for the holiday – I’ll have a holiday when he’s 15!”

The 51-year-old welcomed his first child, Otto, with fiancée Tegan Kynaston last August. And it seems fatherhood has brought out a whole new side to the radio shock jock. “We’ve done tummy time, we’ve played,” Sandilands tells WHO of his morning with the 5-month-old. “He thinks he can stand now, but really I’ve got my hands under his armpits.”

But while fatherhood might have

softened Australia’s original mean-guy judge, Sandilands still has plenty to give when he returns to the Australian Idol panel this year. “I used to just be a bit of an a---hole, but I think even the radio show’s changed over the years,” he admits. “You get a bit more of the whole person now, rather than just 20 per cent of the a-hole side. I’m still a bit of an a-hole though – don’t get me wrong!”

What were your initial thoughts about going on Australian Idol again?