Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has revealed that she felt shame and disgust for herself before publicly revealing her struggle with drugs and alcohol.
The radio host, 49, detailed her battle with addiction and her secret stint in rehab in her biography, The Whole Truth.
‘I was getting very sleepy. “I was just navigating through life, and there were never any questions about who I am or what I stand for… that person was living a very superficial life,” he tells the Daily Telegraph.
‘I didn’t know what it really meant to love yourself. Was it just telling yourself that you’re beautiful in the mirror?’ she continued.
Jackie went on to explain the process of telling her daughter, Kitty, 14, about her battle with addiction.
‘We have a fairly open dialogue between us and there is a lot of trust in it, but ultimately we just want to protect them. But I don’t want to wrap it in cotton either,” he said.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson (pictured) has revealed she felt shame and disgust for herself before publicly revealing her struggle with drugs and alcohol.
Jackie added that “other moms” at Kitty’s school have been supportive and reaching out to her.
‘SHe hasn’t had any problems on the playground. And I think that part was really lovely, it really was,” Jackie said.
The radio star recently revealed the only sign that pointed towards his secret drug and alcohol addiction.
Jackie told how she fell into a deep addiction after the breakdown of her marriage in 2018 to British photographer Lee Henderson and again during the Covid-19 lockdown.
At the height of her addiction, Jackie took between 10 and 12 Stilnox/Zolpidem and 24 Panadeine Forte sleeping pills a day and took them with alcohol, which doctors say is very dangerous.
However, she kept her battle with addiction a secret from her loved ones, saying she had Covid for a long time when she took an extended leave of absence from work in November 2022 to check into the Betty Ford Clinic in California.
Talking to him Sydney Morning HeraldHe said his friends began to notice his forgetfulness and often reminded him: ‘Jackie, we talked about that last night, remember?’
This led her to write down their phone conversations in real time on Post-it notes and then remind him what they had talked about in an attempt to hide her struggles.
The radio host, 49, detailed her battle with addiction and her secret stint in rehab in her biography, The Whole Truth. “I was getting so numb… that person was living a very superficial life,” he tells the Daily Telegraph.
Jackie went on to explain the process of telling her 14-year-old daughter Kitty (left) about her battle with addiction. “We have a pretty open dialogue between us and there’s a lot of trust in that, but ultimately we also want to protect them,” he said.
Her personal assistant, Brittany Woodford, also began noticing empty medication blister packs and felt conflicted with her duty to Jackie’s well-being and her role as an employee.
“It was very hard to sit like that, watching someone you love suffer,” Brittany, 35, explained. “But there is a line: she is like my sister, but also my boss.”
He said he eventually decided to start leaving kind letters for Jackie to find urging her to seek help, but his efforts were in vain at the time.
Meanwhile, her best friend Gemma O’Neill, who eventually convinced Jackie to go to rehab, said her friend began to completely isolate herself.
“For a while I thought I had developed agoraphobia,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Honestly, that’s what I was leaning towards, because the reality was so far from what I could have ever imagined.”
Although she was unaware of her drug addiction, her mother Julie Last also expressed concern about Jackie’s drinking, but said her daughter became defensive and yelled at her.
Eventually, Jackie told her best friend Gemma about her struggles, which led to them secretly flying out of Australia to go to the Betty Ford Clinic in California.
Jackie said Betty Ford told her not to change “anything” about her use before she arrived as it could be “dangerous”, so she was still taking pills on the day she flew to the US.
Known for treating Hollywood stars, including Keith Urbano, Robert Downey Jr.. and Lindsay LohanBetty Ford charges between $45,000 and $90,000 AUD for a one-month stay, depending on the program.