Howard Sattler suggested to Gillard that her partner of seven years, Tim Mathieson, had to be homosexual because he was a hairdresser. The DJ was suspended and then sacked by Fairfax Radio, which apologised for the ‘disrespectful’ questioning. Sattler, a veteran commercial radio talkback host in Perth, told Gillard he wanted to clear up myths and innuendo about her and then said: “Tim’s gay. That’s not what I’m saying, that’s a myth.”