Jackie “O” Henderson’s raw confession: ‘I hit rock bottom’

The Kyle and Jackie O radio star has spoken out about one of the lowest points in her life in a candid and wide-ranging new interview.

She’s one-half of the top-rated radio show in the country, but the past few years have not been without their challenges for Jackie “O” Henderson.

The Kyle and Jackie O co-host has opened up in this week’s edition of Stellar about how she’s bounced back from a particularly difficult period.

“I can’t believe how good I feel this year. I’ve had some sort of crazy breakthrough,” Henderson told the magazine.

“But I feel like I’ve kind of hit rock bottom to get to this point.”

The radio star explained that she stumbled into the lowest period of her life in 2020 amid her divorce being finalised from her husband of 18 years, Lee Henderson, and ongoing Covid lockdowns.

“You ask anyone who’s going through that and, especially when you have children, it makes it even harder,” she said.

“The guilt you feel – and everything associated with that – is very difficult to get through … Before I knew it, I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t eating well. I was drinking too much.

“Everything about who I am just changed over that time.”

Eventually, she added, “a light bulb” switched on in her brain.

“It was like, ‘What happened to me? Was I in a coma for the past three years?’ I really looked into what I had become as a person … Everything about who I usually am had been taken away. Now, it’s back.”

Henderson with her Kyle and Jackie O Show co-host Kyle Sandilands. Picture: Supplied

Henderson sensationally stepped back from her hit KIIS FM radio show late last year to focus on her health, telling listeners in November that she had been struggling to recover since contracting Covid-19 and had been advised by her doctor to take time off to rest.

Opening up about her decision to Stellar, she admitted that, at the time, she had “questioned” how long she could keep doing the gruelling breakfast radio hours for.

“There’s this brain drain that comes with radio and I was struggling with that,” she said.

“But now I feel I could do this job till the day I die. I wouldn’t know what to do without it. It’s a really beautiful outlet to speak to people and cover so many topics, but also laugh and have fun with the people you love.”

Earlier this month, Henderson shared an update on her dating life on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, telling her co-host Kyle Sandilands that she was chatting to “three or four” men on dating app Hinge.

“I’m going to do it because why not?” the 48-year-old said of why she signed up.

“I can’t go out all the time. I don’t want to do that. This is just easier [to meet men]. I want to have some fun. I want to go out on a date here and there.”

She split from husband Lee in 2018, with the pair finalising their divorce two years later. Picture: Instagram

Henderson also opened up about the new chapter in her life to Stellar, admitting she’s “finally ready to date” following her 2020 divorce.

“I’ve never really been in the public eye when I’ve dated someone, so … I’ll probably take it as it comes … And I think there’s room now to bring someone into my life. I don’t need it, [but] it would be nice to be open to it,” she told the publication.

Meanwhile, Henderson has been the subject of criticism over the years for her affiliation with her longtime co-star, Kyle Sandilands – who fairly regularly lands in hot water for his controversial on-air remarks.

But during the wide-ranging interview, she hit back at suggestions that controlling his perspective is her responsibility.

“I do feel that a lot of the time, the women always get the blame,” Henderson admitted.

“But I’m not the handbrake in this situation and I’m not the mother in the situation. It’s not my job to correct him every time.”

Read the full interview with Jackie “O” Henderson in the latest issue of Stellar, available in today’s Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun.