Jackie ‘O’ Henderson reveals she ‘didn’t love herself’ before revealing drug and alcohol addiction – and how she told her daughter Kitty of her past

Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has revealed she felt shame and disgust for herself before publicly revealing her struggles with drugs and alcohol.

The radio host, 49, detailed her battle with addiction and secret detox in her biography, The Whole Truth.

‘I numbed myself so much. “I was just sailing through life – and there were never any questions about who I am, or what I stand for… that person lived a very superficial life,” she tells the Daily Telegraph.

‘I didn’t even know what loving yourself actually meant. Was that just telling yourself you’re beautiful in the mirror?’ she continued.

Jackie went on to explain how she told her daughter, Kitty, 14, about her addiction struggles.

‘We have a fairly open dialogue with each other and there is a lot of trust – but at the end of the day you just want to protect them. But I don’t want to wrap cotton wool around her either,” she said.

Jackie added that “other moms” at Kitty’s school have supported her and reached out to her.

‘She has had no problems with it in the playground. And I just think that part was really beautiful, it really was,” Jackie said.

The radio star recently revealed the only sign pointing to her secret medicine alcohol addiction.

Jackie told how she fell into a deep addiction after the collapse of her marriage to British photographer Lee Henderson in 2018 and again during the Covid-19 lockdown.

At the height of her addiction, Jackie was taking about 10 to 12 Stilnox/Zolpidem sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte a day and washing them down with alcohol – which doctors warn is very dangerous.

However, she kept her addiction battle a secret from her loved ones and said she had been suffering from Covid for a long time when she took an extended absence from work in November 2022 to check into the Betty Ford Clinic in California.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning HeraldShe said her friends noticed her forgetfulness during a blackout and often reminded her, “Jackie, we were talking about that last night, remember?”

This led to her writing down her real-time phone conversations on Post-it Notes to later remind her of what they had talked about in an attempt to hide her struggles.

The radio host, 49, detailed her battle with addiction and secret detox in her biography, The Whole Truth. ‘I numbed myself so much. That person lived a very superficial life,” she told the Daily Telegraph

Jackie went on to explain how she told her daughter, Kitty, 14, (left) about her addiction struggles. “We have a pretty open dialogue with each other, and there’s a lot of trust – but at the end of the day you just want to protect them,” she said

Her personal assistant Brittany Woodford also began noticing empty blister packs of medication and felt conflicted with her duty to Jackie’s well-being and her role as an employee.

“It was so hard to be in that – to see someone you love suffer,” Brittany, 35, explained. ‘There is a limit: she is like my sister, but also my boss.’

She said she eventually decided to leave kind letters for Jackie to urge her to get help, but her efforts were in vain at the time.

Meanwhile, her best friend Gemma O’Neill, who eventually convinced Jackie to go to rehab, said her friend had begun to completely isolate herself.

“For a while I thought she had developed agoraphobia,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Honestly, that’s what I was hoping for because the reality was so far from what I could have ever imagined.”

Although her mother Julie Last was unaware of her drug addiction, she also expressed concerns about Jackie’s drinking, but said her daughter would become defensive and yell at her.

Eventually, Jackie confided in her best friend Gemma about her struggles, which led to them secretly leaving Australia to attend the Betty Ford Clinic in California.

Jackie said Betty Ford told her not to change “anything” about her use before she arrived because it could be “dangerous,” so she was still taking pills the day she flew to the US.

Known for treating Hollywood stars including Keith Urban, Robert Downey Jr. And Lindsay LohanBetty Ford charges between $45,000 and $90,000 AUD for a one-month stay, depending on the program.