Jackie ‘O’ Henderson made a bombshell confession Wednesday morning as she revealed to Sunrise host Natalie Barr she was ‘on drugs’ during one of their previous interviews in 2022.
The radio star, 49, recently shocked listeners when she admitted to her prescription pill addiction issues during a tearful conversation with her KIIS FM co-host Kyle Sandilands on their Kyle and Jackie O show.
Now, after revealing the harrowing details of her struggle in her memoir The Whole Truth, Jackie has revealed she was once high while doing an interview for Sunrise with Nat, 56, about Weight Watchers, who she was an ambassador for at the time.
‘I interviewed you a couple of times, I think, during that time [of your addiction]. I came to your house,’ Nat said on Wednesday during her most recent interview with the media personality.
‘Yes, oh my gosh, you did. Okay, so that was when I was in it,’ Jackie confessed, referring to the height of her addiction which saw her consuming up to 12 Stilnox sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte tablets daily, often with alcohol.
‘You were on drugs then?’ Nat said, stunned. ‘Can you remember that interview?’
‘Yeah, I can remember it,’ Jackie said slowly as she tried to recall the details of the interview in question, which took place in August 2022 just a few months before she checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol addiction in the US.
‘I mean, we were doing the Weight Watchers interview. I remember at that time just feeling like such a fraud.’
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, 49, (left) made a bombshell confession Wednesday morning as she revealed to Sunrise host Natalie Barr, 56, (right) she was ‘on drugs’ during one of their previous interviews in 2022
‘Every now and again I would have to do something like an interview with yourself and I would put on the hair and makeup,’ Jackie continued.
‘You would maybe believe that I’m happy and, you know, what a great life I have, but it was so the opposite.’
In the 2022 Sunrise interview Jackie had with Nat, the radio host was being questioned at her home about her second attempt to lose weight with Weight Watchers, which now goes by the name WW.
Jackie appeared to be all smiles during their chat and seemed able to keep track of the conversation, giving no indication she was high on prescription drugs at the time.
The confession comes just a few weeks after Jackie opened up about the shocking way she managed to access prescription medication during the height of her addiction struggles .
‘An addiction to prescription medication requires effort, in the form of doctor shopping, which was exhausting and embarrassing,’ Jackie began on her KIIS FM radio show.
‘I knew this, because I’d done it back when I was taking Endone. You have to find different medical centres every month. With a new patient showing up and asking for powerful painkillers, they’re immediately suspicious.’
The radio star shocked fans when she admitted to her prescription pill addiction issues in her memoir The Whole Truth
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Jackie then revealed that rather than deal with the challenges which came with going to GPs, she decided it was easier to access her medication from the black market.
‘I was hit by a stroke of good luck—or incredibly bad luck—when I met someone who was able to access prescription medication for me. It was dodgy as hell, but I risked it anyway.
‘My problem was not only solved, but even better, I’d be able to get a stronger codeine painkiller, Panadeine Forte.’
The presenter added she was forced to go cold turkey after her dealer was arrested, completely cutting off her supply.
‘My mobile phone rang. It was my supplier, calling me to let me know that they’d been busted. Just like that, I had no more access to my pills,’ she said.
‘This was the moment I had been dreading, where I’d finally have to address my addiction and somehow stop a habit I’d been indulging for years.’
Jackie has revealed that at the height of her addiction she was consuming up to 12 Stilnox sleeping pills and 24 Panadeine Forte tablets daily, often with alcohol.
Jackie has now revealed she was once high while doing an interview for Sunrise in her own home with Nat about Weight Watchers, who she was an ambassador for at the time, just a few months before she went into rehab
The KIIS FM star admitted on The Kyle and Jackie O Show that she secretly checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol addiction in November 2022.
Jackie admitted she was advised not to reduce her pill intake before arriving at the clinic, meaning she was still using the substances the day she flew out to the US.
When Jackie took her break from the show in 2022, Kyle Sandilands told listeners she was stepping away to ‘focus on her health’ after contracting COVID-19.
However, behind the scenes, the beloved radio host was battling an addiction that had spiralled out of control.
The veteran presenter said she wanted to publicly speak about her addiction battle to reduce the ‘stigma’ around drug dependence and ‘normalise’ it.
The presenter bravely apologised to listeners for not revealing her health struggles before and revealed she would be marking two years of sobriety in a matter of weeks.