‘Not normal’: Sad reality of Jackie O’s secret drug addiction

A doctor says the very job that’s made Jackie O one of the richest people in radio could have been a key factor in her crippling drug addiction.

Radio host Jackie “O” Henderson made some startling confessions about her past drug abuse on-air this week.

Now, a medical expert tells news.com.au that the very job that’s made Jackie O one of the richest people in radio could have been a key factor in her crippling drug addiction.

Dr Zac Turner, a GP and medical practitioner specialising in preventive health and wellness, told news.com.au that people with disrupted sleep patterns like shift workers or those with very early starts are particularly susceptible to becoming reliant on sleep-inducing medications.

“That morning timeslot is really unhealthy as a long-term career. You look at people on TV and people who have to get up at that time, and it’s so difficult to have a life, to have fun and see people, and also be waking your body up at a time when it’s still needing different phases of sleep,” Dr Turner, who is not Jackie O’s doctor, told news.com.au.

“In Jackie’s case, she has a deadline that she has to wake up for daily, so she’d be having to go to sleep at times that are not normal.”

Jackie O broke down as she shared her story on-air this week.

Jackie O has shared in the past that she wakes up at 4:48am each day before going live on-air from 6am.

In an emotional segment on Thursday’s episode of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the radio star read out a chapter from her soon-to-be-released new memoir, The Whole Truth, detailing her secret drug addiction.

Jackie said she was “badly addicted” to lots of different things, including painkillers, sleeping pills and alcohol.

“I was averaging about 24 Panadeine Forte painkillers a day and then I was averaging about 10 to 12 Stilnox [sleeping tablets] a day,” she revealed.

“Someone was watching over me because I don’t know how I woke up most days with that kind of dosage.”

Some on social media have expressed disbelief at Jackie O’s account of the sheer amount of drugs she was consuming.

However, Dr Turner said that while her case sounded “extreme,” he’d “known of people in rehab who’ve been on lots more. It would have to have built up over a few years.

“With those medications, if you don’t use them properly, you build up a tolerance. And they’re quite addictive,” he said.

Dr Zac Turner says patients with unusual working hours are particularly susceptible to misuse of these sorts of drugs.

As well as her radio show, Jackie O appeared as a judge on The Masked Singer as she secretly struggled with drug addiction. Picture: Channel 10.

Dr Turner explained that using medications to help with sleep can be a slippery slope given their addictive nature – and ultimately, patients need to understand that they’re not actually improving the quality of their sleep in taking them.

“I’ve had lots of patients who’ve really struggled with these types of addictions, who didn’t start out ‘doing anything wrong.’ At first it’s ‘I need to sleep, I’ll have this tablet.’ People often think that whether you’ve knocked yourself out from alcohol or pills, you’re still asleep – but doing that, you actually reduce the restful, restorative parts of sleep,” he told news.com.au.

“And that’s the rest that helps you to make better choices in life. People who make riskier choices in their waking life are often very sleep-deprived.

“In Jackie’s case, she’d have been missing that restful sleep in the morning [by waking up early], and also taking medication that meant she’d be missing out on restful sleep when she went to bed. It’s a double whammy.”

Jackie O at the ACRAs on October 29, 2022 – she went to rehab the following month. Picture: Supplied

Jackie revealed this week that she checked herself in to a Betty Ford rehab centre in the US in November 2022, just two weeks after she and Kyle appeared at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards to accept the award for best on-air team.

At the time, she told listeners she was taking time out as she’d been struggling with fatigue since contracting Covid.

In fact, she spent 28 days in rehab, having enrolled in a 12-step program “to treat the substance dependence and drug addiction I’ve been able to keep secret for three long and painful years.”

While she may have kicked the addiction, Dr Turner said he hoped Jackie O was also working with healthcare professionals to combat the potential long-term effects of her past drug abuse.

“It’s amazing she says she’s off [all drugs]; that’s quite incredible. ‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ is an apt phrase in cases like this – people often get taken off one medication and put on another as they’re weened off the drugs,” he said.

“Taking these drugs even a couple of times a week is really bad for [your chances of developing] early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“If she was on these drugs for multiple years, there’s lots more things she’ll need to do to help prevent issues later in life. You need to do a lot to help boost your synaptic health, your vascular health, helping all these functions recover.”

Jackie said on-air this week that she’s in a much better place in her life post-rehab, saying her “life changed in the most positive way” once she got clean.

And Dr Turner said he could see her opening up about her drug addiction would have a similarly positive effect: “This is something that people don’t talk about enough, so great work that she’s talking about it.”

For support or advice about alcohol and other drugs, visit adf.org.au or call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015.

If you are worried about your own, or a friend or relative’s alcohol or other drug use, you can visit the ADF’s Path2Help. This free online tool will connect you with local services in your area that can help, based on your personal circumstances.