Radio host Jackie “O” Henderson broke down on air on Thursday morning while tearfully revealing a private lengthy battle with drug addiction and her subsequent recovery.
During a planned-yet-halting emotional statement from the broadcast veteran, Henderson said that, two years ago, she was taking painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.Credit: Instagram
It was only brought to an end by a month-long stay in rehab in November 2022 at the famed Betty Ford Centre in Palm Springs, California.
In what was a wrenching departure from the titillating norms of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the co-host of the polarising KIIS FM program told listeners how she began dabbling with painkillers and sedatives as a way of relieving stress and some sadness (around 2017, when her marriage to former photographer Lee Henderson began breaking down), before ultimately sinking deeper into her substance abuse issues during pandemic lockdowns.
She chose to break her two-year silence on Thursday by reading aloud from the prologue of her upcoming memoir, Jackie O: The Whole Truth.*
Good Weekend magazine will feature the first exclusive print interview with Henderson about her ordeal this Saturday, in a cover story explaining how she turned to pills and alcohol while feeling “diminished, untethered and alone” in her new life.
Kyle and Jackie O .
“By that point, I had no self-esteem, so I was insecure, vulnerable, and heartbroken,” she said. “It was a recipe for disaster, and I took the coward’s way out to escape those feelings.”
Henderson has kept her secret until now to focus solely on her health, with only a small group of trusted confidantes, including her manager, personal assistant, and parents, being let in on the extent of her problem. Close friends, extended family, and even her co-host Sandilands were kept in the dark until Thursday morning.
