Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has opened up about a shocking new career move after revealing her past battles with drugs and alcohol.
The 49-year-old radio host shocked listeners Thursday when she shared heartbreaking details of her journey with addiction while speaking with her co-host Kyle Sandilands on his radio show.
Jackie has since revealed her dream of opening her own rehab center and has already begun looking for properties for the facility.
talking to him Sydney Morning HeraldJackie shared her plans and said the center would be ideally located in a woodland setting and would be affordable for everyone.
The multimillion-dollar broadcaster added that it has been studying up to 20 hectares of bushland south-west of Sydney as a possible site for the centre.
“I can only speak from my experience, because my addiction is very different from anyone else’s,” Jackie said in the candid interview.
“But people can ask me whatever they want and I’m okay with that.”
‘I mentioned this, I posted it myself, so I’m really okay talking about it. “I’m excited to be more authentic than ever.”
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has opened up about a shocking new career move after revealing her past battles with drugs and alcohol.
Jackie also shared that she felt it was important to talk openly about her past addiction and turn her back on feelings of shame.
‘Who cares if someone judges me? “I’m tired of burying the parts of me that aren’t perfect in everyone’s eyes,” she said.
It comes after the slender beauty shared her personal story with addiction with listeners during this week’s Kyle and Jackie O show.
Fighting back tears, Jackie shared that she entered the Betty Ford Clinic rehab facility in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show that she previously said was due to a Long Covid.
Jackie has since revealed her dream of opening her own rehab center and has already begun looking for properties for the facility.
Betty Ford, known for treating Hollywood stars such as Keith Urban, Robert Downey Jr. and Lindsay Lohan, charges between $45,000 and $90,000 AUD for a one-month stay, depending on the program.
Jackie revealed on air that her old friend Gemma had been instrumental in getting Jackie into rehab.
Jackie emotionally credited Gemma with saving her life by persuading her to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.
She recalls: ‘It came to a head and (Gemma) was a great friend. She said, “I’m sorry, Jackie, but you’re not going to cut this back, it’s never going to work.” I’ll take you to rehab at the end of the week and we’ll go.”
“I said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous, for Gemma to do something like that is an exaggeration.’ I don’t have a problem bad enough that I need to go to Betty Ford.”
“And she said no, let’s go and we’ll do it, and I thank God she did it,” Jackie admitted.
“Thank God there was someone like her because I think she saved my life.”
She said they took a red-eye flight from Australia and boarded at the “last minute” to avoid being seen and then flew to Los Angeles, where Gemma stayed with her for two days before checking into the Betty Ford Clinic.
She said Gemma accompanied her to Los Angeles and helped her get on the plane “undetected” while she talked about keeping her addiction a secret for two “long, painful years.”
Fighting back tears, Jackie shared that she entered the Betty Ford Clinic rehab facility in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from Kyle and Jackie O that she previously said was due to a long period of time. of Covid.
At the time, Kyle, who was unaware of Jackie’s drug addiction, told his listeners that Jackie was taking a break to “focus on her health” after contracting Covid.
Instead, she was secretly flown out of Australia to receive 28 days of treatment at the world-famous rehabilitation center for her addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.
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 while drinking alcohol.
Stilnox users are warned not to drink alcohol, as it can slow down the respiratory system and make it difficult to wake up.
Jackie said Betty Ford told her not to change “anything” about its use before she arrived as it could be “dangerous”, so she was still taking the pills on the day she flew to the US.
Jackie also said she went “back and forth” over whether to share the news publicly before detailing the extent of her addiction in her upcoming memoir The Whole Truth, scheduled for release Oct. 29.
