I saw my best friend Jackie ‘O’ Henderson at the depth of her drug addiction – it was a life or death situation and will haunt me forever
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson’s best friend and manager Gemma O’Neill broke down in tears on Thursday as she revealed her heartbreak at seeing her best friend struggle with drug addiction.
Jackie, 49, made the tearful revelation that she secretly attended the Betty Ford Clinic in November 2022 as she read an extract from her new book to her co-host on their KIIS FM radio show.
Shortly afterwards, Gemma tearfully told Kyle how she helped Jackie, 49, secretly fly to California and check into the world-famous building.
After Jackie admitted her shocking addiction – taking up to 12 Stilnox sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte tablets every day – Gemma had to act quickly.
“I could see Jackie fading into someone that wasn’t her. “I didn’t know how to deal with it,” she said.
“If you tell one person, they can help you. And Jackie had the courage to tell me one day. She called me and said, “Gemma, I’m doing something really stupid.”
‘Jackie told me she had been taking pills. I said, “I’m driving to your house now, stay there.” I got there and we had a very traumatic conversation about the reality that was going on. She was a mess.
“I knew there was no way she was going to get better unless something serious happened. I could see very quickly that it was a life or death situation and I had to act quickly.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson’s best friend and manager Gemma O’Neill broke down in tears on Thursday as she revealed her heartbreak at seeing her best friend struggle with drug addiction
‘I immediately booked her with Betty Ford [rehabilitation centre]. It was about making sure she got the help she needed, I knew that was the only option. Fortunately, it became a very successful program.
Jackie jumped in and thanked Gemma for ‘never leaving my side’ during her darkest hour and giving her the help she needed.
“Thank God I had you. I will forever be grateful for what you did for me,” said a grateful Jackie.
As Jackie traveled to the US to recuperate, Kyle told listeners that Jackie took a break to “focus on her health” after contracting Covid.
Jackie said staff at Betty Ford, which is popular with Hollywood stars, told her not to change “anything” about her use before she arrived because it could be “dangerous,” so she still took the pills at the day she flew to the US.
She said she went “back and forth” on deciding whether to share the news publicly before detailing the extent of her addiction in her upcoming memoir The Whole Truth, set for release on October 29.
Before the book came out, Jackie broke down in tears when she first spoke about the harrowing extent of her addiction struggle.
Jackie, 49, made the tearful revelation that she secretly attended the Betty Ford Clinic in November 2022 as she read an extract from her new book to her co-host on their KIIS FM radio show
“I could see Jackie fading into someone that wasn’t her. I didn’t know how to deal with that,’ Gemma said
‘I was afraid to tell people and say this out loud, I know people will look at me differently. I was in a dark place,” she told listeners.
Jackie admitted she had lied by ‘omission’ when she announced in 2022 that her absence from work was due to her suffering from Covid.
She said her problems first started more than 15 years ago when she was prescribed a strong opioid painkiller for endometriosis – a disease in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus and causes severe pain.
Jackie thanked Gemma for ‘never leaving my side’ during her darkest hour, and for giving her the help she needed
Betty Ford is a nonprofit residential treatment clinic for people battling substance addiction, located in Rancho Mirage, California.
It has been a favorite rehab for many Hollywood stars over the years, including Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Busey, Johnny Cash and Lindsay Lohan.
The clinic was founded in 1982 by former First Lady Betty Ford and is located in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, California.
The country is world famous for its tough attitude towards rehabilitation and for its strict regime.
It offers inpatient, outpatient and residential day treatment for alcohol and drug addiction and has 100 hospital beds available at their location.
In 2014, the Betty Ford Center merged with the Hazelden Foundation to form the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, and the following year opened an additional outpatient clinic in West Los Angeles.
Betty Ford is a residential rehab facility for people battling substance addiction in Rancho Mirage, California and has been visited by Hollywood stars including Johnny Cash and Lindsay Lohan