Jackie ‘O’ Henderson opened up about her negative relationship with food and her struggle with binge eating, revealing the huge amount she consumed each day.
In her memoir, The Whole Truth, the 49-year-old radio star revealed that she has always had issues with food and has tried every diet, including the lemon detox and keto.
But in the times when she wasn’t dieting, Jackie says she would “binge eat all weekend”, insisting that her healthy habits will “start on Monday”.
“I have never had a clinical eating disorder, but I have always had a very unhealthy relationship with the way I view eating,” she writes.
Jackie says that growing up, she set her alarm for 5 a.m. every morning and made toast with white bread spread with “peanut butter and butter (double the butter!), or butter and cinnamon sugar.”
During her marriage to her now ex-husband Lee Henderson, Jackie’s diet once consisted of ‘burgers, fries and pizza’, and one night she consumed an entire jar of Nutella and a glass of champagne for dinner.
She highlights the ‘vulnerable’ moment where Lee would point out her weight gain and how she has been followed to this day.
“I remember changing in the locker room, I was there naked and vulnerable, and Lee walked by and I caught him looking at me in the mirror with an expression of disdain or disgust. I’ll never forget that look. Sometimes he would put his arm around me and grab a wheel of ‘Look at that!’ he said jokingly, but I wondered if it really was.’
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson opened up about her negative relationship with food and her struggle with binge eating, revealing the huge amount she consumed each day. Pictured: Jackie at the ACRAs in 2022 (left) and the following year (right)
It got to the point where Lee suggested she undergo a full body scan “because he thought I was obese.”
“I went and bought one… and I wasn’t obese,” she continues. —But he was overweight. I was probably just eating my feelings and my palate wasn’t picky.
Later in her memoir, Jackie explained that her recent weight loss was due to a strict diet and exercise after overcoming her battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
“Naturally, after three years of sitting in a lounge consuming large amounts of fast food, alcohol, and metabolism-slowing sedatives, the body will go into shock and lose pounds when that’s over,” she writes.
“There were rumors that I was taking Ozempic, because surely I must be taking the wonder weight-loss drug to have had such a dramatic transformation.”
Jackie’s weight gain got to the point where her now ex-husband Lee Henderson (left) suggested she undergo a full body scan “because he thought I was obese.” Photographed in 2004
It comes as Jackie revealed the extent of her drug and alcohol addiction in pictures taken moments before her rehab stint.
Photos of the star, who was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol addiction in 2022, show her smoking her last cigarette while awaiting the results of a Covid test.
In the image, Jackie’s Chanel bag lies face down next to her as she lights up her cigarette while sitting on the shoulder of a parking lot outside the admissions office.
Another image shows Jackie flying business class while traveling “incognito on her way to California and rehab.”
The never-before-seen footage has been revealed in his new memoir, which chronicles the radio star’s extensive drug use.
In the memoir, Jackie explains that she began taking “codeine pills with a glass of wine” in an attempt to escape reality.
“At first it was casual, until it wasn’t. Truth be told, while over the years when times got tough I would go to the pharmacy and buy Nurofen Plus for relief, it’s different now,” he writes.
‘To experience any kind of effect, I have been taking approximately ten Nurofen Plus tablets at a time for years. Now that I was deeper into my addiction, I was taking that amount three or four times a day.’
Jackie admitted that her addiction began to worsen after her divorce from Lee Henderson, to whom she was married from 2003 to 2018.
Jackie’s diet once consisted of ‘burgers, hot fries and pizza’, and one night she consumed an entire jar of Nutella and a glass of champagne for dinner.
Never-before-seen footage has been revealed in his new memoir chronicling the radio star’s extensive drug use.
The divorce caused her to spend less time with her daughter Kitty, now 13, causing her to suffer unbearable bouts of sadness and loss.
‘In an attempt to cope with the loneliness and guilt I felt, I made another bad decision. “I started taking sleeping pills (Stilnox) on days when I was alone, as a way to numb the loneliness,” she continues.
“It was a cowardly way of facing my pain, of finding solace in what was slowly becoming an addiction.”
Jackie details the great lengths she would go to to hide her addiction from her friends and explained how she would hide and dispose of the empty pill packets she kept in her house.
“I didn’t want to throw them in the trash… I would put them all in a white plastic bag and then, after two weeks, I would throw my misfortune into a random container on the way to work.” she adds.
Photos in the book show Jackie smoking her last cigarette as she waits for the results of a Covid test before entering rehab.
The media star opened up about her rapid weight gain during the peak of her addiction, which she claims was triggered by drinking “a bottle of wine” or a gin and tonic, all while taking Stilnox and then ordering UberEats “every day.” . day’ during Covid.
When Jackie took a break from the show in 2022, her co-host Kyle Sandilands told listeners that she was stepping away to “focus on her health” after contracting COVID-19.
But instead, he was checking into the Betty Ford Clinic to combat his addiction.
Jackie admitted that she was ashamed of her secret, fearing public judgment, and decided to seek help after hitting rock bottom.
She also revealed that she asked her daughter Kitty for permission to share her story publicly and praised her for treating her with “compassion.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of my daughter, the way she has dealt with it has been non-judgmental, just compassionate and supportive,” Jackie said.
Jackie said she wanted to speak publicly about her battle with addiction to reduce the “stigma” around drug dependency and “normalize” it.
The host apologized to listeners for not disclosing her health issues sooner and revealed that she will be two years sober in a matter of weeks.
“I want to apologize to our listeners and to everyone in my life (…) I just needed to focus on that part first, that recovery,” he said.
The Whole Truth by Jackie ‘O’ Henderson is available now in stores and online.