Jackie O Henderson appeared relieved as she left the KIIS FM studios after revealing her past drug and alcohol addiction for the first time live on her radio show.
The radio host, 49, shared harrowing details of her long battle with drug addiction while speaking to her co-host Kyle Sandilands on their radio show on Thursday.
She shared that she checked into rehab facility the Betty Ford Clinic in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show that she previously claimed was due to long Covid.
After keeping her addiction a secret for over two years, Jackie looked as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as she left the North Sydney studio for her Clovelly mansion on Thursday morning.
She was seen leaving the studio’s underground car park in her black Range Rover alongside her best friend Gemma O’Neill – who she revealed was the one who persuaded her to check into rehab in 2022.
Jackie concealed her eyes behind a pair of black Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses after breaking down in tears live on-air while making her addiction admission just hours before.
Driving out the studios, Jackie kept it casual in a white Miu Miu T-shirt with red detail around the sleeves and crew neck and waved at onlookers.
She looked relieved as she flashed a smile while heading home alongside her supportive friend Gemma, who has long known of Jackie’s addiction battle.
Jackie O Henderson appeared relieved as she left the KIIS FM studios after revealing her past drug and alcohol addiction for the first time live on her radio show
The radio host, 49, admitted she checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show
And Jackie looked as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as she left the North Sydney studio for her Clovelly mansion on Thursday morning
Gemma sported a pair of dark sunglasses and had a stoic expression on her face as she looked out the window from the passenger seat.
After a pit-stop at Jackie’s Clovelly mansion, the pair then headed out for a bite to eat.
Their choice of nosh-spot was the swanky Double Bay eatery Margaret which offers mains from $42 to $340.
Bearing no signs of the emotion she displayed earlier on-air, Jackie beamed broadly and was even happy to wave at onlookers as she exited the car park
Jackie concealed her eyes behind a pair of black Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses after breaking down in tears live on-air while making her addiction admission just hours before
She was seen leaving the studio’s car park in her black Range Rover alongside her best friend Gemma O’Neill – who she revealed was the one who persuaded her to check into rehab in 2022
Jackie cut quite the breezy figure for her lunch date, wearing a white Miu Miu graphic T-Shirt with a red trim on the crew neck and sleeves.
While the shirt gave off an effortlessly casual vibe, it would have set Jackie back an eyebrow raising $890.
Jackie also hid her svelte frame under a pair of baggy Dion Lee harness flight low rise pants, that would have cost the radio queen $990.
After a pit-stop at Jackie’s Clovelly mansion, the pair then headed out for a bite to eat at swanky Double bay eatery Margaret
Jackie cut quite the breezy figure for her lunch date, wearing a white Miu Miu graphic T-Shirt with a red trim on the crew neck and sleeves
While the shirt gave off an effortlessly casual vibe, it would have set Jackie back an eyebrow raising $890.
Wearing the same sunglasses as she did in her car trip, Jackie also accessorised with a large light brown suede bag and a pair of white strappy heels.
She finished her ‘lunch look’ with a pair of black and silver Fendi hoop earrings.
Jackie had revealed on-air that Gemma had been instrumental into getting Jackie into rehab.
Jackie emotionally credited Gemma with saving her life by persuading her to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.
Jackie also hid her svelte frame under a pair of baggy Dion Lee harness flight low rise pants, that would have cost the radio queen $990
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.’
She said they caught a night flight out of Australia and boarded at the ‘last moment’ to avoid being seen and then jetted over to LA, where Gemma stayed with her for two days before she checked into the Betty Ford Clinic.
Known for treating Hollywood stars including Keith Urban, Robert Downey Jr. and Lindsay Lohan, Betty Ford charges anywhere from $45,000 to $90,000 AUD for a month-long stay, depending on the program.
Wearing the same sunglasses as she did in her car trip, Jackie also accessorised with a large light brown suede bag and a pair of white strappy heels
She finished her ‘lunch look’ with a pair of black and silver Fendi hoop earrings
She said Gemma accompanied her to LA and helped her to get on the plane ‘undetected’ as she discussed keeping her addiction a secret for two ‘long and painful years’.
At the time, Kyle – who was unaware of Jackie’s drug addiction – told their listeners Jackie was taking a break to ‘focus on her health’ after contracting Covid.
Instead, she was secretly flown out of Australia to be treated for 28 days at the world famous rehab facility for an addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.
At the height of her addiction, Jackie took around 10-12 Stilnox/Zolpidem sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte a day and would take them while 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.
Jackie also said she went ‘back and forth’ deciding whether to share the news publicly before detailing the extent of her addiction in her upcoming memoir The Whole Truth, slated for release on October 29.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has emotionally revealed she went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction on the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday
‘I was scared to tell people and say this out loud, I know people will look at me differently and love me,’ she told listeners on The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
‘I was in a really, really dark place.’
‘That’s what the addiction to your brain, it changes your way of thinking, it doesn’t want you to get help, it’s so powerful,’ she continued through tears.
‘It takes a rock bottom moment to cut yourself off.’
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, who she shares her daughter Kitty, 13, with.
She checked into the Betty Ford Clinic in California in November 2022, when she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show (she is pictured in October 2022 with Kyle)
At the time, Kyle told their listeners Jackie was taking a break to ‘focus on her health’ after contracting Covid. She is pictured just weeks before she went to rehab on October 2022 at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards with her daughter Kitty
Instead, she was secretly flown out of Australia to be treated for 28 days at the world famous Betty Ford rehab facility (pictured) for a addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol
‘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.’
The radio host, 49, made the tearful revelation while speaking to her co-host Kyle Sandilands on their KIIS FM radio show on Thursday morning
Jackie (pictured in July 2023) admitted she lied by ‘omission’ when she made her 2022 announcement that her absence from the show was because she was suffering from 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, when she said she was stepping away to battle long Covid.
Reading out an extract from her memoir’s prologue, she shared: ‘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.’
Her co-host 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.
Jackie said her struggles first began 15 years ago when she was prescribed a painkiller for endometriosis, which she started taking again after her 2018 split from Lee Henderson (above)
At the height of her addiction, she took around 10-12 Stilnox sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte a day. She is pictured with Kyle at the ACRAs in October 2022, days before she checked into rehab
‘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 broke down in tears during the emotional radio segment and said it wasn’t because she is ‘ashamed’ but because it felt ‘scary’ to finally share the news publicly.
Of her decision to speak out, Jackie also revealed she asked permission from her daughter Kitty to share her story and praised her for treating her with ‘compassion’.
‘I couldn’t be more proud of my daughter, the way she has been about it has been zero judgement, just compassionate and support,’ she shared.
She said Kitty had ‘no idea’ she was struggling with addiction at the time as she detailed a recent conversation they had when Jackie opened up about her struggles.
Jackie said Kitty knew she wanted to publicly speak about her addiction battle to reduce the ‘stigma’ around drug dependence and ‘normalise’ it for others.
‘I said to Kitty, I feel there are so many people out there who have different kinds of addictions that are stuck in this place they can’t get out of,’ she went on.
Jackie said she warned Kitty that her schoolmates might try and talk to her about it, but her daughter bravely said she didn’t want ‘judgemental’ people in her life.
The presenter bravely apologised to listeners for hiding her addiction struggles before and revealed she will be marking two years of sobriety in a three weeks time.
Jackie is pictured in a post shared to Instagram by her KIIS FM colleague Pete Deppeler (right in an orange top) in April 2022
‘I want to apologise to our listeners and everyone in my life where I haven’t sort of been forthcoming with this, I just needed to concentrate on that part first, that recovery for the first year particularly,’ she said.
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’.
She later opened up about the poor state of her mental and physical health.
Jackie’s co-host Kyle shared his support with her during her on-air statement and appeared to have not been previously aware about her rehab stint
‘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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