Jackie O Henderson opens up about abortion decision

Radio host Jackie “O” Henderson has revealed she had an aboortion while dating her now ex-husband Lee Henderson.

In her tell-all memoir The Whole Truth, Henderson wrote that she “unexpectedly” fell pregnant when aged about 26.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jackie O bravely shares drug addiction.

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She was soon to marry her now ex-husband, a photographer hailing from the UK, but Henderson explains they felt they were “young and growing” and not ready to start a family.

“I was unexpectedly pregnant. It was morning sickness. But I wasn’t remotely ready for motherhood,” she wrote.

“It was an incredibly tough decision, but — through tears — we made the one we felt was right. Because we weren’t ready. We just weren’t.”

Jackie O and Lee Henderson in 2004. Credit: Patrick Riviere/Getty Images

Henderson wrote of sitting in the waiting room of a family planning clinic in Woollahra for 10 minutes before committing to the procedure.

“It’s all so quick, so sober, so perfunctory. You wake up, and that’s emotional. I know there were tears on my face, definitely, and if I think about it deeply all these years later, even for a moment, there are tears now, too,” she recalled.

She said becoming a mother to her daughter Kitty, 13, made the decision all the more emotional.

“You try not to beat yourself up too much, but you do the maths every year. I don’t know why, but I always thought it was a boy.

“A son. My son would be turning 23 this year.”

Years after the abortion, the couple struggled to conceive and went through several rounds of IVF before Kitty was born in December 2010.

Jackie O and her 13-year-old daughter Kitty. Credit: jackieo/Instagram

The book also details the radio host’s three-year struggle with drug addiction, and Henderson has pledged 100 per cent of the profits of her memoir to charity to help others battling similar issues.

Henderson tearfully read aloud from the memoir on air last week, describing how she was “badly addicted” to painkillers, sleeping pills and consuming alcohol for three years.

Henderson said she felt “diminished, untethered and alone”.

“By that point, I had no self-esteem, so I was insecure, vulnerable, and heartbroken,” she read live on the Kyle And Jackie O Show on Thursday.

“It was a recipe for disaster, and I took the coward’s way out to escape those feelings.”

Jackie O with her new memoir The Whole Truth. Credit: jackieo/Instagram

Only a very small group of friends knew of Henderson’s struggles, with co-host Kyle Sandilands learning the news at the same time as the public on Thursday’s show.

“I just didn’t want anyone to know until I had at least gotten a year or more of sobriety under my belt,” Henderson said.

“I can only speak to my experience because my addiction is so different to anyone else’s.

“But people can ask me anything they want, and I’m OK with that. I brought this up, I put it out there myself, so I’m well and truly OK talking about it. I’m excited that I can be more authentic than I’ve ever been.”

Henderson recalled how, in November 2022, she left the radio show three weeks earlier than it was expected to wrap up for the year — “I know I won’t make it that far, I’m hanging on by a thread,” she read from her book — to attend rehab in the US.

On the Friday afternoon she recorded a message to be played on the Monday morning, telling her audience she was sick and taking some time off.

“I’m nervous about this pre-record because I’m not going to be telling the whole truth to our listeners,” she said.

“There’s only one thing to do today, get on a plane for Los Angeles. My best friend and manager Gemma O’Neill is with me … she tells me I won’t need any fancy dresses where I’m going.”

Jackie O reads from her upcoming memoir. Credit: Kyle and Jackie O

Henderson said she had lunch with O’Neill on the day of their flight and recalled being “teary”.

“Not because I don’t want to go on this journey but because I don’t have the faintest idea what it will be like and that scares me,” she wrote.

She was enrolled in a 28-day, 12-step program at the well-known Betty Ford Centre to “treat the substance dependence and drug addiction I’ve been able to keep secret for three long and painful years”.

On Thursday she told Sandilands she consumed her final tablet “the day of” checking into rehab, explaining facility staff had said it was “too dangerous” to attempt to quit beforehand.

The now 49-year-old said there were “lots of different reasons” for her addiction, but did not go into any on-air.

Wiping away her tears, she said she was “not crying because I’m ashamed, I’m crying because I kept this in for so long ... saying this out loud is scary”.

Henderson said she went back and forth about whether to share her story but decided to make it public, “to use my story to help people”.