Jackie O Henderson has opened up about the type of man she used to be attracted to – and the way her exes ‘mistreated her’ in relationships.
The radio host, 49, said she has been ‘treated so poorly’ in the past by her romantic partners on the first episode of her new Her Best Life podcast, which she co-hosts with her manager Gemma O’Neill.
‘I have 100 per cent not valued myself in the past and I have been treated so poorly with what I’ve accepted,’ Jackie admitted.
‘I’ve always been a real people pleaser. In every relationship I’ve had, I’ve been the caretaker, the giver.’
Jackie O first announced her split from ex-husband Lee Henderson in 2018, to whom she was married for 15 years.
The radio star was previously married to her former radio co-host Phil O’Neil for four years, before they divorced in 1999.
‘I’m not an angel,’ she continued on the podcast, which hit number one on Apple Podcasts overnight.
‘I’m certainly not saying I was Mother Theresa. I obviously had my faults in relationships, but I definitely know that I was more concerned with how everyone else in my life felt, and I always put me last.’
Jackie O Henderson revealed how she taught herself to use boundaries in romantic relationships and overcame her people pleasing tendencies to avoid being ‘mistreated’
The radio star, 49, admitted that she previously wasn’t even able to tell her ex-boyfriends if she didn’t like the way they spoke to her
Jackie revealed that she never used to have the confidence to speak up for herself in relationships, even with small issues such as telling her ex-boyfriends she didn’t appreciate the way she was being spoken to.
‘If it was going to make them feel uncomfortable, or make the situation awkward, I was just not going to do it,’ she said.
‘It was more important that they [felt comfortable], than me. I’d rather be the one suffering and biting my tongue. Because I didn’t want them to feel bad.’
The mother-of-one also opened up about her sex and love life following divorce and the one piece of advice her psychologist gave her that changed everything.
‘A lot of self-love comes from putting yourself first and putting up boundaries and being comfortable enough to say hey, I have a problem with that, can we discuss it?’ Jackie said.
‘I’ve been terrible at [boundaries] my whole life.’
Jackie O first announced her split from ex-husband Lee Henderson, pictured, in 2018. The couple had been together for over 18 years and, share a now 13-year-old daughter Kitty
Best friends and business partners Gemma and Jackie share the same psychologist, who instructed the radio host to start with enforcing a small boundary that felt comfortable and “doable” to achieve.
‘The feeling you’ll get afterwards is actually quite empowering,’ Jackie said.
‘What happens is, you start to get addicted to how that feels… You’ll have a smile on your face about looking after yourself. And do you know what? You’ll think “I resolved a situation and that whole thing was really positive.”
‘Then you’ll do a bigger one next time, and one that feels really uncomfortable after that. The more you do it, the more you’ll feel empowered, and start doing it more often.
Jackie went on to explain that these little actions snowballed until she started attracting ‘higher value people, moments and situations’ into her life.
‘You don’t have to get there through some profound moment or epiphany, but you’ll start with something small and slowly work your way there,’ she said.
‘People treat you poorly and you’re getting abused in certain situations and you’re basically copping it in life. Sitting there and going, well f**k, this is the situation I’m in and I’ll roll with it.
‘When you start choosing yourself and loving yourself more, you start attracting people and situations in your life that match the love you’re giving yourself – no question.’
After going through her divorce, Jackie said she’d been using dating apps for about three days when she claimed she’d already met ‘the one.’
Jackie O revealed her biggest fear in dating now is that she’ll go out on a blind or dating app date and not like the guy
‘I remember your first date [after her divorce],’ Gemma told her of the unnamed man.
‘You were so elated and you couldn’t wait to meet him. I think you’d built up in your head that this was it.’
The radio host’s best friend said that over the years, Jackie ‘certainly has a pattern’ with the type of men that she’s attracted to.
‘I was imagining our life together, I was dreaming about us getting married, I knew he was the one without having met him,’ Jackie recalled whilst laughing.
‘I was excited and you were not.’
It would be the first of many first dates that Jackie said sometimes left her feeling ‘so drained’ by the end of the night.
‘Sometimes I felt like I was interviewing them,’ she said of her dating app experiences. ‘I was working so hard to be engaging and bubbly and it was just ridiculous to be honest. That’s not who I am.’
‘I’d be working that thing to the bone, I was so drained by the time I walked out of some of those dates.’
The radio personality has become a fully-fledged socialite in the last couple of years.
Jackie’s friend group previously included co-host Kyle, KIIS newsreader Brooklyn Ross, and Gemma.
Now, the blonde beauty is mixing with Australia’s rich and famous, even making her way over to Europe for one of her new friend’s nuptials in July.
Her close bond with P.E Nation designer Pip Edwards has also seen Jackie move in the same circles as top Sydney stylist Jess Pecoraro, make-up artist to the stars Max May, and Four Seasons condom heirs Michael and Alexander Porter.