Kyle Sandilands gets one of his staff members to crash Sunrise to apologise to Natalie Barr

Kyle Sandilands infamously branded Natalie Barr ‘cold’ after it was confirmed she would be taking over from Sam Arymtage as Sunrise host.

But it appears the radio shock jock is feeling quite guilty about his savage words, as on Friday he got a Kyle and Jackie O staff member to crash the set of Seven’s breakfast show to apologise to the former newsreader, 52, on her birthday. 

‘The radio superstar has sent you a present!’ David ‘Kochie’ Koch revealed to a visibly surprised Nat, as Intern Pete [Deppeler, KIIS FM producer and occasional on-air personality] was seen jumping around enthusiastically with a present in his hand. 

‘That’s Pete and [producer] Mitchell! I follow you on Instagram!’ Nat laughed.

Explaining why the visit was quite bizarre, Natalie said her co-host: ‘Kyle originally said the other day that I was cold, I didn’t deserve the job and it should have gone to someone else outside of the company.’

But Kochie rightly said that Kyle appeared to have had a change of heart, before airing a special video message from the radio host himself. 

‘Hello Natalie, happy birthday Nat and you’re one week down… I was wrong,’ he said.

‘You’ve done a fabulous job, you’ve done a superb job. Everyone loves it, you’re fabulous darling!’

He then burst into applause, as Natalie smiled in the studio.     

‘Thank you Kyle, that’s very nice!’ she said.  

‘I would say, that means you’ve been anointed! That’s like getting a blessing from the Pope!’ Kochie joked. 

The Kyle and Jackie O team also shared the trip on their Instagram page, showing Pete rocking up to the studio with his box in hand. 

Later in the show, Natalie peeked into the box and confirmed the gift was, in fact, some bottles of Prosecco. 

‘I am very glad he’s changed his tune! I think we’ve kissed and made up Kyle. Thank you!’ she added. 

Earlier in the week, Natalie had confronted Kyle after his hurtful words aired on live radio – insisting he didn’t know her well enough to make such a claim. 

‘Sorry, Kyle, I actually have not met you in person, but maybe if you met me in person you’d see that I’m not that cold,’ she said.

‘You’re just reading the news when I’ve seen you, so I don’t know your personality,’ he said, trying to veer the conversation towards the general topic of media scrutiny.

‘Are you worried that people will start judging you on your personality, not just great newsreading skills?’ Kyle asked. 

Playfully hitting back, Natalie said: ‘Well, I wasn’t until now, until you piped up!’

Earlier in the show, Kyle had suggested the veteran newsreader only got Sam’s job because she’d waited in the wings for so long. 

‘Natalie’s a great newsreader – not taking anything away from her success – but I think you can’t just hang around,’ he said.

‘It’s like me leaving and Intern Pete being given my job, just because he’s here,’ he added.

Jackie was shocked by his harsh feedback, saying: ‘Oh, my god. There’s nothing comparing Nat to Intern Pete! Not to offend you [Pete]!’

Kyle also criticised Natalie’s personality, calling the esteemed journalist ‘cold’.

‘I find her a little cold, just quietly. I’ve never met her, mind you. Just watched her on TV. And maybe I find her cold because she’s just reading news,’ he shrugged.