'Douchebag' McKenney's starring role in personal (Rocky) horror show

LABELLED a “headline whore” by his incensed brother-in-law, and a “douchebag” by his sister, entertainer Todd McKenney is no stranger to celebrity scandal.

Currently treading the boards as Frank N’ Furter in the Rocky Horror Show, in just one interview McKenney has managed to out his brother-in-law, royally infuriate his sister, and take a starring role in a personal horror show entirely of his own making.

The 54-year-old dragged his family into the spotlight last weekend, when during a podcast he revealed he had been in a relationship with his sister Lisa Gallaher’s husband, Simon Gallaher, in the 1980s before the Lisa and Simon married in 1990.

“She married my ex-boyfriend and is still married to my ex-boyfriend,” the former Dancing With The Stars judge said.

It’s not first time McKenney has been the centre of a scandal.

In 2008 he hit the headlines in spectacular fashion after being found on a Friday afternoon unconscious in a Sydney harbourside park after a drug overdose.

Members of the public found McKenney about 3.30pm on April 25, 2008 and called an ambulance.

It was Anzac Day. McKenney has been at a party at nearby Potts Point the night before. He was revived by ambulance officers.

He was charged with possessing the drug GHB — known as the ‘date rape’ drug — but ultimately the charges were dropped, with police citing little prospect of convicting him.

He told The Sunday Telegraph he suspected his drink had been spiked, and the drug was planted on him.

“My drink was obviously spiked,’’ he said, venturing he was a victim of “the tall poppy syndrome’’.

“They obviously wanted to put the boot into me. I don’t know what I have done to deserve this treatment.”

Earlier in 2008, in April, McKenney had been banned from driving for three months and fined $375 after pleading guilty to drink driving after police pulled him over for driving with his headlights turned off about 11pm in Sydney’s George Street.

THE ‘NASTY JUDGE’

The musical theatre star and TV personality survived the Rushcutters’ Bay overdose scandal to keep his job as the “nasty judge”, on Dancing With The Stars — a role he held from 2004 until the show ended in 2015.

McKenney’s periodic scathing assessments and bitchy put-downs of dancers on the show were frequently described by fans as cruel, unnecessary and deliberately courting controversy and shock value.

McKenney left Sydney Olympics opening ceremony darling Nikki Webster in tears in 2005 with a performance score of one out of 10; in 2001 told Sunrise host Sam Armytage her dancing was “dull” (Lara Bingle got a similar assessment) and to “move your arse”; and traded barbs in 2004 with Pauline Hanson. Cue viewer outrage.

McKenney was largely unrepentant. Despite being berated at airports by fans, spat on, and once having sausages thrown at him in a butcher store, he continued with no-holds-barred comments rather than keep his mouth shut.

That same mouth got him into trouble last weekend as he outed his brother-in-law.

Simon’s response via Facebook was as scathing as it was succinct: “Todd McKenney is a Headline Whore. Shame on him,” he wrote.

“His sister on the other hand is the love of my life and wife of over 31 years. I love her to the end of the world.”

It had echoes of Webster’s response to her on-air humiliation at the hands of McKenney: “He wanted a bit of publicity for himself and I think it worked because he has been doing interviews all day,” she told reporters at the time.

McKenney said his sister Lisa had ‘never’ discussed her marriage with him and he hadn’t spoken about it publicly before.

Lisa’s response was as economical as it was withering. Assuring friends on Facebook she was “OK”, she said her brother was a douchebag, and a “selfish, lying idiot”.

McKenney chalked up 30 years in show business in 2016.

Celebrity “took me a long time to get used to … it was tough getting used to everyone having an opinion of you,” he told Fairfax at the time.

“For years people hated my guts.”

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