Jackie O reveals the response to her dramatic weight loss

Jackie O has revealed the three simple changes she made to lose a staggering amount of weight in just six months - and the reaction that infuriates her.

Jackie ‘O’ Henderson is one of the most famous women in Australia, and with that comes the public’s excessive interest in her weight. Now, she’s ready to really talk about it.

Cleverly, she’s capitalised on that searing scrutiny and signed a lucrative deal with WW, formally known as Weight Watchers.

She’s also shared her journey and revealed she’s dropped 18 kilograms in less than six months, and now everyone is demanding to know how she did it.

“It is a combination of three things, I don’t drink alcohol, diet and exercise,” she told news.com.au.

Henderson is candid about her weight loss, but also protective of it.

“I didn’t take some magic pill,” she said with one of her signature warm smiles.

In person Jackie ‘O’ is petite, blonde and shockingly young looking. If she hadn’t been on the airwaves for decades, you’d be forgiven for thinking she was in her late 20s.

While she’s so much more than her looks (she’s on radio, not television) it is interesting that she’s never acquired sex symbol status, given she’s got Sophie Monk meets Lara Bingle vibes.

Jackie ‘O’ is one of the most famous women in Australia. Source: Instagram

She’s been open about her weight loss journey. Source: Instagram

Famous women talking about how they maintain their bodies is always a sticky point. If you do, you’re contributing to diet culture; if you don’t, you’re not being honest.

In Jackie ‘O’’s case, there was ongoing commentary on her body long before she publicly discussed her weight gain.

Alongside Kyle Sandilands, she is the co-host of one of the most successful radio shows in Australian history The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

It just nabbed a 17.9 per cent share in the highly competitive breakfast radio ratings – setting a new record for the pair and making them a ratings force.

Jackie ‘O’ has been in the game for more than two decades, but she is more relevant now than ever, and with that comes the scrutiny, questions, and interest in her dress size.

When she gained weight, the public commented, and now she’s lost weight, they’re commenting again, and she is struggling to navigate the response to her recent change in shape.

“What bugs me the most is that people don’t believe how I lost it. I lost weight very quickly, and they think I’m taking Ozempic,” she explained.

It gets under her skin because she’s put in the work. She’s taken up tennis, cut out alcohol and changed her daily life.

“If I see that (Ozempic) word one more time in my feed… put me on a lie-detector test. I don’t take that,” she said.

Yet it hasn’t stopped people from speculating, even those in her inner circle.

“I even have friends say to me, ‘how did you really do it’ and I’m like ‘I f**king did it the way I said I did it.”

Jackie ‘O’ and Kyle are a ratings force in breakfast radio. Source: Instagram

Jackie ‘O’ Henderson is the face of WW. Picture: Instagram

The radio host has become so invested in her health that she’s at a point where she wants to gain some weight back.

“I don’t want to lose any more weight, I’m almost trying to put on a kilo or two,” she said.

There’s another narrative swirling around that she finds hard to deal with. One where people insist she looks better now she’s lost weight, or that she’s finally getting more media coverage because she’s thinner.

The fact she co-hosts the number-one breakfast show isn’t enough for the public to accept she deserves the media coverage.

“The narrative of ‘you’re prettier now because you’re skinny!’ That I don’t like at all,” she admitted.

It doesn’t end there, though.

“People are saying that the fact I’m on the cover of a magazine is bad. They’ll say ‘They didn’t want her when she was fat,’ and this is the wrong message to send. Like I’m only on the cover now because I’ve lost weight... but that isn’t the case.”

Jackie ‘O’ was the April cover girl for Stellar – a rare occurence for the radio host, who tends to reject most media opportunities. She explained that her weight loss hasn’t created more opportunities for her... but rather she is accepting more.

“I’ve been asked many times in the past and I wasn’t ready to do it,” she said.

Kyle Sandilands & Jackie 'O' Henderson are an iconic duo. Picture: Supplied/ACRA

Why? Well, the answer is complicated. She swore it wasn’t her weight that was holding her back, but rather her mindset.

“I didn’t really like who I was back then and it wasn’t how I looked. I just really needed to do the work on myself.”

Despite the fact her career never took a nosedive, she found herself struggling post-pandemic.

“I was very isolated and I’d become a hermit and I didn’t do anything that was good for my body.

“Once I made changes to start treating my body better and trying things like meditation, therapy, eating well, and exercising, I just became a different person and it was like I came out through a dark space, and I just got happy again.”