Kate Langbroek has issued a grovelling statement after suggesting she had fallen out with her former radio co-host, David Hughes.
Appearing on The Project Thursday night, Langbroek said she discovered in 2016 that Hughes was earning 40 per cent more than her for years while they worked on Hughesy & Kate at KIIS FM.
“We did a radio show together for 18 years … It changed our relationship when we talked about money and I then left,” Langbroek said on the Ten program.
“Apart from my husband he was the most significant man in my life. And it has been like a marriage, and now like a divorce.”
Langbroek, 57, has since said “important” details were left out during the segment, including that Hughes was “mortified” when he discovered his female co-host was on less, and even offered to take a pay cut.
Sharing a selfie on Instagram of the pair having a heart-to-heart today, Langbroek revealed Hughes had been left “hurt” by her remarks on the current affairs program, and that she felt compelled to clarify all the facts.
She also said they were not “estranged”, though she conceded that was “clearly the impression I gave [on The Project].”
“Because of time constraints, and not having planned what I was going to say, some important things didn’t get said by me,” Langbroek began.
“[The pay gap] was when we were doing drive on KIIS; three years before I left to live in Italy, so my dumb joke ‘and then I left him’ was simply that.
“He also vowed that from that point on, we would always negotiate together on the show we had built together, and we did, the following year, when we moved to SCA [Southern Cross Austereo].”
Langbroek confirmed that, after privately raising the pay issue with KIIS bosses in 2016, she was paid the same as Hughes until they finished their contracts with the network in late 2017.
Hughes didn’t find out about Langbroek being paid less than him until early 2017 and he offered to take a pay cut without being aware Langbroek had already procured equal pay.
When they moved their show to the Hit Network in 2018, the pair were paid the same, before Langbroek quit in late 2019 after moving to Italy with her family. She returned to Melbourne in 2021.
Langbroek continued: “Anyway today there’s a couple of news stories implying that Hugh and I are estranged, which is clearly the impression I gave. So now it’s my turn to be mortified, cause my friend is hurt. And I love my friend.
The fact is, I am not estranged from David William Hughes. I never have been; not even when we have been apart.
“And I don’t think I ever could be. We have created great times, and navigated terrible times, where he did not falter. I know him. I adore him.
“Also, women can tell when a man doesn’t consider us equal, and this guy is not that – with me or any woman.”
Radio co-hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson fought for equal pay back in the early 2000s, when Sandilands discovered he was on significantly more money.
He also offered to take a pay cut so they’d be paid the same.
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“I went and spoke to our general manager and told her Jackie O getting paid less wasn’t right! I told her to make it even and use my money,” Sandilands said.
“She said, ‘You want to give Jackie money out of your own money?’ And I said ‘yeah!’
“Two hours later, she said, ‘I will increase Jackie O’s salary, but won’t take any off you’,” Sandilands said.
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