Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has shared how she secretly flew out of Australia to check into rehab in the United States as she revealed her battle with addiction for the first time.
The radio host, 49, broke down in tears live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday as she opened up about her secret addiction struggles in late 2022.
She has detailed the harrowing extent of her addiction in her upcoming memoir, The Whole Truth, and publicly shared the news in a tearful radio segment.
Speaking to her co-host Kyle Sandilands, Jackie told how she took around 10-12 Stilnox/Zolpidem sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte a day and would take them while drinking alcohol at the height of her addiction.
Jackie admitted she then checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in California in November 2022, taking an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
At the time, Kyle told listeners Jackie was taking a break to ‘focus on her health’ after contracting Covid and she kept her addiction battle a complete secret until now.
Kyle, 53, was not even aware of her struggles, with Jackie only telling her mother, her best friend Gemma O’Neill and more recently, her daughter Kitty, 13, who she shares with her ex-husband Lee Henderson.
Jackie revealed how she managed to secretly fly out of Australia and to Los Angeles in November 2022 to check into the famous Betty Ford Clinic, which has been host to Hollywood stars including Lindsay Lohan and Keith Urban.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has shared how she secretly flew out of Australia in November 2022 to check into rehab in the United States as she revealed her battle with addiction. She is pictured with Kyle Sandilands just weeks earlier at the ACRAs in October 2022
Speaking live on-air, Jackie said she was accompanied by her best friend Gemma for the flight and they made the decision to catch a night flight for more privacy.
Reading out a section from her memoir, Jackie detailed her travel itinerary and how she managed to keep her addiction a secret for more than two years.
‘I’m ready to leave for the airport and catch this night flight. We board at the last possible moment and we arrive late in the evening.
‘We pick up our rental car and set a course for Palm Springs. We’re headed to a little hotel there for two nights, but that’s not my final destination.
‘After our weekend in the Sonoran desert, Gemma will be heading home and I won’t be going with her. I’m going on alone when she checks out.’
Jackie then secretly checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for a 28-day stay to take part in a voluntary 12-step program to treat her drug addiction.
Betty Ford, located in Rancho Mirage, charges anywhere from $45,000 to $90,000 AUD for a month-long stay, depending on the program.
At the time, her stay in Betty Ford was not widely known as she told listeners at the time that her absence was due to a battle with long Covid, which she now admits was a ‘lie’ by ‘omission’.
Jackie said none of her KIIS FM colleagues were even aware of the reason behind her prolonged absence from her radio show at the time, not even her close friend Kyle.
She recalled of the time: ‘The whole team wishes me well, I’m sure they’re curious about my temporary leave of absence, but none of them really knows why I’m stepping back.
‘But it has to be this way.’
She has detailed the harrowing extent of her addiction in her upcoming memoir, The Whole Truth, and publicly shared the news in a tearful radio segment (pictured with Kyle in October 2022)
Speaking live on-air on Thursday, Jackie said she was accompanied by her best friend Gemma O’Neill for the flight and they made the decision to catch a night flight for more privacy
Kyle sounded shocked as he revealed he had ‘no idea’ about her addiction battle while learning about it for the first time live on-air.
‘You’re just so anti-drug, that’s the shock of it, you have never been the party girl, you were never that,’ he said.
‘I didn’t know you were a big drinker, I know you like a wine every now and then. I feel embarrassed that I sit here every day of my life and had no clue.’
‘I’m in shock, I’m in shock and feeling like a s**t friend for not realising,’ he added.
Jackie admitted she had been ‘scared’ to reveal her addiction struggles publicly before and had long debated whether to share the news.
‘I kind of went back and forth in my mind about whether to say it or not,’ she confessed, saying she didn’t want to be attached to a ‘former drug addict’ label.
‘I felt really like it was a cop out for me if I kept it hidden from people just because I was fearing what people would say or think about me.’
Jackie said she will be marking two years of sobriety in three weeks’ time as she detailed the harrowing extent of her drug abuse.
At the height of her addiction, Jackie took around 10-12 Stilnox/Zolpidem sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte a day, all while still drinking alcohol.
Stilnox users are warned not to drink alcohol as it can slow the respiratory system and make it difficult to wake up.
Jackie said Betty Ford told her not to change ‘anything’ about her usage before arriving as it could be ‘dangerous’ so she was still taking the pills the day she flew out to the US.
The radio host, 49, broke down in tears live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday as she revealed her secret addiction struggles for the very first time
In November 2022, Jackie secretly checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for a 28-day stay to take part in a voluntary 12-step program to treat her drug addiction
She said her struggles first began more than 15 years ago when she was prescribed a strong opioid painkiller for endometriosis – a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing severe pain.
‘I got prescribed that and I found myself at the time taking it more than I needed and I recognised that this might be a bit of a problem, so I stopped at the time,’ she said.
However, Jackie then went back to the medication after her 2018 split from UK photographer Lee Henderson.
‘I went back to it as a way to kind of go to some happy please, and it was a way of escaping and it was so the wrong thing to do,’ she confessed.
Jackie said she started taking a few codeine ‘here and there’ and one Stilnox at night with a glass of wine, which she described as a ‘blackout’ situation.
‘You can still be awake and have no idea what’s going on,’ Jackie shared.
‘It’s like you’re kind of functioning but you have no memory.’
However, what really ‘kickstarted’ Jackie’s addiction was isolating at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she said she was ‘struggling’ and felt ‘so sad’.
‘The dosage started to creep up more and more and it got extreme and I was averaging about 24 Panadeine Forte a day and then I was averaging about 10 to 12 Stilnox,’ she shared.
‘Someone was watching over me because I don’t know how I woke up most days with that kind of dosage.’
Jackie is pictured looking relieved while leaving KIIS FM’s studios after sharing her news live on air
After first having a problem with painkillers more than 15 years ago, Jackie then went back to the medication after her 2018 split from UK photographer Lee Henderson (both pictured) and again during Covid
Jackie said none of her KIIS FM colleagues were even aware of the reason behind her prolonged absence from her radio show at the time, not even her close friend Kyle
Jackie detailed the moment she realised she had a problem and tearfully told her best friend Gemma O’Neill, who urged her to go to rehab despite her objections in a move which ‘saved her life’.
She recalled: ‘It came to a head and [Gemma] was such a great friend. She said ”I’m sorry Jackie, but you’re not going to taper off this, it will never work. I’m checking you into rehab at the end of the week and we’re going”.
‘I said ”don’t be ridiculous, Gemma like that is such overkill. I don’t have a problem that bad that I need to go to Betty Ford”.’
‘And she said no, we’re going and we’re doing it and I thank God she did that,’ Jackie admitted.
‘Thank God there was someone out there like her because I believe she saved my life.’
Just weeks before Jackie’s public statement, Kyle spoke about Jackie’s mysterious two-month absence from their KIIS FM show in November 2022.
Not knowing about her addiction battle, Kylie jokingly claimed earlier this month that Jackie had actually taken time off to focus on her appearance, referencing her weight loss at the time.
The radio hosts were speaking to Abbie Chatfield live on-air about ‘slut-shaming’ comments Kyle made on the air during Jackie’s absence.
‘If Jackie wasn’t away worrying about her own image, then this would never have happened,’ Kyle said.
At the time, Jackie announced she was stepping down from her KIIS radio show for health reasons, but has now revealed she was at Betty Ford.
Jackie, who had been coughing and sounding unwell on air for weeks, said at the time she had been suffering from poor health since contracting Covid-19 a few months prior and needed proper rest to recover.
‘I’ve been not very well ever since I’ve had Covid… I’ve been struggling with this fatigue,’ she told listeners.
‘I just have to take some time off,’ she added. ‘I’m ending the show today. As in now.’
She reassured listeners she wasn’t ‘dying’ and said her doctor told her ‘if I keep doing this, it is going to get much worse and I’ve taken his advice’.
At the time, Jackie (pictured in July 2023) announced she was stepping down from her KIIS radio show for health reasons, but has now revealed she was at Betty Ford
She later opened up about the poor state of her mental and physical health.
‘It was hard to take that time off. I was pushing through but I should have taken it off earlier,’ she told News.com.au in January 2023.
‘I just could not push myself any further. I’m glad I took care of my health first because I feel like a million times better.’
She said a tropical holiday in Fiji with her daughter Kitty saw her develop a healthy eating and sleeping routine, which helped with her return to work in January 2023.
‘I started to get into different kinds of exercise like tennis and water aerobics. It is the most amazing exercise and works every muscle in your body,’ she said.
Jackie added it was important for everyone to recognise their limits and take a break when needed to prevent the risk of burn out.
‘Whatever position you’re in, I promise you’ll feel better about yourself when you start making steps towards that healthier lifestyle.’
Betty Ford is a nonprofit residential treatment clinic for people battling substance dependence located in Rancho Mirage, California.
It has been a favourite rehab facility for many Hollywood stars over the years, including Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Busey, Johnny Cash, Lindsay Lohan and Kelsey Grammer.
David Hasselhoff, Mickey Mantle, Liza Minnelli, Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Urban, Chevy Chase, Jerry Lee Lewis and Anna Nicole Smith are also among the famous names to have attended.
The clinic was founded by former First Lady Betty Ford in 1982 and is situated in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in California.
It is world famous for its tough attitude towards rehabilitation as well as its strict regime.
It offers inpatient, outpatient and residential day treatment for alcohol and drug addiction and has 100 inpatient beds available on their site.
In 2014, the Betty Ford Center merged with Hazelden Foundation to form the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, and it opened an additional outpatient treatment clinic in West Los Angeles the following year.
Betty Ford is a residential rehab for people battling substance dependence in Rancho Mirage, California and has been visited by Hollywood stars including Johnny Cash, Lindsay Lohan and Kelsey Grammer
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