Jackie ‘O’ Henderson made headlines in 2023 when she sold her Sydney ‘dream home’ for $13 million.
At the time, the 49-year-old radio star explained that paparazzi had influenced her decision to vacate the lavish estate in the eastern suburbs.
But in her new memoir The Whole Truth, Jackie reveals a darker twist to the sale, saying she linked the house to her addiction to alcohol and prescription pills.
Jackie said she started abusing alcohol while living in the lavish Woollahra home.
She also became addicted to prescription drugs, including codeine.
“It was hell on earth at night, especially when I was alone,” she explains in the book.
Bought in June 2022 as a ‘forever home’ for $11 million, Jackie describes the luxury four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment as a ‘fortress’ in her new tome.
“On one side the trees rose miles high – it felt like you were in a rainforest, completely cut off from the world – while on the other side it looked like concrete ramparts with a gate,” she writes.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson has revealed the dark and disturbing reason she decided to sell her flashy ‘forever home’ in Sydney’s eastern suburbs
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson made headlines in 2023 when she sold her ‘dream home’ in Woollahra for $13 million
‘I was surprised there was no moat. Inside, this palace was made of cold marble and stone. It was like living in a Westfield shopping center: cold and soulless.”
By November 2022, Jackie had fled home to the US for a 28-day stay at the famed rehab facility, the Betty Ford Center.
Her friend Gemma O’Neill, meanwhile, began organizing a sale for what would become Jackie’s ‘forever home’.
In her new memoir The Whole Truth, Jackie reveals a darker twist to the sale, saying she linked the house to her addiction to alcohol and prescription pills.
“I never wanted to go back to the house in Woollahra,” the radio star writes in the book.
“…Gemma helped me market it privately so no one would know I was in this state of turmoil.”
Jackie originally bought the Woollahra estate after selling a beautiful Vaucluse country house she built with her ex-husband Lee Henderson.
The former couple paid $2.7 million for the property in the sought-after neighborhood in 2012.
The pair then constructed what Jackie calls in her book a ‘Father of the Bride House’ – a reference to a 1950 Hollywood film celebrating the upscale suburbs.
Jackie originally bought the Woollahra estate after selling a beautiful Vaucluse country house she built with her ex-husband Lee Henderson. The former couple paid $2.7 million for the property in the sought-after neighborhood in 2012. (Photo)
The palatial home, with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a white picket fence, sold in 2020 for $6.5 million.
Before taking to the Woollahra trail, Jackie lived in a Bondi rental property but complained about being harassed by paparazzi.
In March this year, it was revealed that Jackie had spent $13.25 million on a three-storey oceanfront home in Clovelly at open auction.
The house is set back from the road and offers the privacy she did not have in the narrow streets of her Woollahra address.
The palatial home, with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a white picket fence, sold in 2020 for $6.5 million. (Pictured)
Earlier this year, Jackie teased fans with details about how she plans to move the two-story home into her dream place.
Features include large open living areas with ocean views, a new built-in swimming pool, sculpted gardens and palm trees.
It comes after the svelte beauty first shared her personal story of drug and alcohol addiction with listeners on The Kyle and Jackie O Show last month.
Fighting back tears, Jackie revealed that she had checked into the Betty Ford Center in California in November 2022, as she took an extended break from The Kyle and Jackie O Show, which she previously claimed was due to long Covid -19 period.
In March this year, it was revealed that Jackie had spent $13.25 million on a three-storey oceanfront home in Clovelly at open auction.
The Betty Ford Center is known for its treatment of Hollywood stars such as Keith Urban, Robert Downey Jr. and Lindsay Lohan and charges between $45,000 and $90,000 AUD for a one-month stay, depending on the program.
Jackie revealed that her old friend Gemma had been instrumental in getting Jackie into rehab.
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 cut this off, it’s never going to work. I’ll let you go to rehab at the end of this week, and we’ll go.”
‘I said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Gemma. That’s so exaggerated. I don’t have that big of a problem that I have to go to Betty Ford.”
“And she said no, we’re going, and we’re doing it, and I thank God she did,” Jackie added.
“Thank God there was someone like her because I believe she saved my life.”
She said they took an overnight flight from Australia and boarded at the “last minute” to avoid being seen.
They then flew to LA, where Gemma stayed with her for two days before checking into the Betty Ford Center.
She said Gemma accompanied her to LA and helped her board the plane ‘unnoticed’ 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 that Jackie was taking a break to “focus on her health” after contracting Covid.
Instead, she was secretly flown from Australia to undergo 28 days of treatment at the world-famous drug rehabilitation center for an addiction to painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.
At the height of her addiction, Jackie was taking approximately 10-12 Stilnox/Zolpidem sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte per day and taking these while drinking alcohol.
Stilnox users are warned not to drink alcohol as it can slow down the airways and make it difficult to wake up.
Jackie said Betty Ford told her not to change “anything” about her use before she arrived because it could be “dangerous,” so she still took the pills the day she flew to the US.
She added that she went “back and forth” on deciding whether to share the news publicly before detailing the extent of her addiction in her memoir, The Whole Truth.