CANBERRA: IT wasn’t quite the welcome home radio host Jackie Henderson was expecting — being detained by Customs staff at Sydney airport.
The Kiis FM star jetted back from a luxurious family holiday in Fiji but instead of being greeted by their chauffeur, it was border control officers who were waiting for them.
The family was red flagged on Friday night after authorities discovered Henderson’s British-born husband Lee was travelling on an expired visa.
“We accidentally grabbed Lee’s old passport which had an expired visa on it … so he had to apply for some new bridging visa,” Henderson told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday.
“They noticed at Fiji when they were checking us in, so I don’t know why it wasn’t picked up on the way out, but when we were leaving Fiji a lady made a call and said it would be fine.
“They just pulled us up at customs coming back into Australia. We were detained for 40 minutes at 10pm at night, just the thing you want when you’re coming in at night time with a tired child.”
Ironically, her husband, whom she married in 2003, will become an Australian citizen after he attends an official ceremony this week. “So it won’t actually be an issue after a couple of days,” she said.
“He is so excited. It has taken all this time but he is finally going to become a citizen of Australia. We are all going to go to the ceremony together and will have dinner after.”
While Henderson’s Fijian getaway was a relatively low key affair, the 40-year-old’s co-star Kyle Sandilands’ Spanish sabbatical was anything but.
Sandilands’ antics on the party island of Ibiza, where he has been snapped all week living it up with girlfriend Imogen Anthony, nightclub impresario John Ibrahim, convicted ecstasy dealer Simon Main and Sandilands’ manager Andrew Hawkins, will no doubt provide fodder for the duo’s popular show which returns to air tomorrow.
Henderson said she was most looking forward to asking Sandilands why he opted for a red flotation device to cruise the waters off Formentera.
“I am looking forward to hearing how Kyle went on his trip … I think he might have more than a few stories to tell judging by the pictures I have seen,” she said.
“They were in heaven with those photographers there. That flotation device … I loved it, so funny, I am going to give him so much crap. I am going to give it to him hard.”
Henderson and Sandilands will return to the airwaves tomorrow. “I really am excited to get back on air,” she said.
“I love the show that we do and I enjoy it so it is not like I am dreading Monday or going back to work, although I am not looking forward to waking up early, that might be a shock to the system. Especially with this weather, it can be a nightmare.”
