The mood is buoyant and the laughter infectious on the morning that Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones arrive at New Idea headquarters for an exclusive photoshoot to celebrate the incredible 18 years they’ve spent together on the radio.
“I think I’ve been a pretty fair employer to Amanda all this time,” Jonesy, 54, tells us with a chuckle.
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Leaning over to give her breakfast show co-host a quick pinch, Amanda, 61, retorts: “I think they know who the real boss is!”
Their obvious chemistry, which has made the pair one of the most successful duos on the Australian entertainment scene, was instant. Yet the partnership came about entirely by accident.
Originally, Amanda was co-hosting a radio show with Andrew Denton. One day, Andrew called in sick and Jonesy was recruited to fill in.
“By the end of it, I thought, ‘That’s the best day of radio I’ve done in my life,’” Jonesy recalls.
“But no-one else could see it and [the station] wouldn’t let us do a show together.”
By the end of that year, Andrew had moved on and Jonesy got his wish – a permanent gig hosting breakfast radio with Amanda.
After so many years of being paid to talk to each other, the pair admit they often forget they’re even on the air when venting about their lives – which can get them in trouble at home.
Amanda shares sons Liam and Jack with husband Harley Oliver, while Brendan and wife Helen have daughter Romany and sons Morgan and Dominic.
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“It was easier when the kids were little and you could get away with saying more,” Amanda says. “But now they’re grown up I do have to realise what I say has implications for them.”
Jonesy reveals that Helen doesn’t tune in each morning, which can make it even worse!
“She’ll hear it third-hand though. People come up and say, ‘Oh, your husband said this about you on the radio today’ and she’ll come home and ask, ‘What have you done?’”
There have been tense moments between Amanda and Jonesy too, with the pair agreeing they often fight like “brother and sister”.
In fact, Amanda will “never forgive” her co-host for one off-air incident.
“There was a time when we were filming something at Channel 7 and I fell down the stairs, hit the deck with a bang and you stepped over me with your hand out saying, ‘Hi, Anna Coren, lovely to see you’” she explains as Jonesy laughs.
It’s clearly a topic she won’t let him easily forget.
The secret to their longevity, in an industry where few make it, is something they do agree on.
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“Every morning we go in with a goal that is we don’t want to do this show half-a**ed,” Amanda says.
“We go in and do it full-a**ed,” Jonesy adds as they break out in laughter.
After almost two decades together, they believe their radio careers will be over the moment the other wants to quit.
“I don’t think I’d have the time or energy to build this [rapport] with someone else,” Amanda says.
“But neither of us are ready for it to end yet either.”
For more, pick up the latest issue of New Idea!
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