How Roxy Jacenko built her multimillion-dollar business empire
She works hard and is not afraid to tell it like it is. Roxy Jacenko may have stepped away from her PR business but she’s far from finished. Here’s her journey to successful businesswoman and mum-manager.
Entertainment
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With no university degree or experience in the public relations industry, Roxy Jacenko managed to create a successful, multimillion-dollar business — gaining her the title of Sydney’s “PR queen”.
During her career, Jacenko managed to market herself and her family just as much as her clients. And although it brought on criticism from the haters over the years, she remains unrepentant.
In fact, in an exclusive interview with The Saturday Telegraph after announcing she was stepping away from her Sweaty Betty company in November 2022, she thanks her haters for keeping her “relevant” and helping her make her fortune.
And she’s not afraid to speak the truth. While some celebs shied away from admitting they were using weight loss drug Ozempic, Jacenko came forward in September 2023 and told her story about how she overdosed on the diabetes drug.
Here’s a look at Jacenko’s life and how she went from a relative unknown to one of the most recognisable faces in Sydney’s social scene — who has now moved to Singapore with her young family.
Background
Roxy Jacenko was born in Sydney on June 8, 1980 to Jewish migrants parents Nick and Doreen. She was brought up in Sydney’s wealthy suburbs along with her sister Ruby, and attended the elite private girls school Kambala.
Her parents gained their wealth after building a successful wholesale clothing empire called Capital Clothing but she is estranged from her father after he split from her mum in 2011 and formed a relationship with fashion designer Lisa Ho. Jacenko’s relationship with her sister was also estranged.
But Jacenko’s work ethic began early with her first part-time job at McDonald’s when she was 14 years old. She later worked as a receptionist and publicist at fashion label Diesel before deciding she wanted to open her own public relations company, Sweaty Betty, with her parents’ backing.
Personal life
Jacenko was already known in social circles before she started dating investment banker Oliver Curtis, who was engaged to PR account manager Hermione Underwood, when he fell for Jacenko around 2010, Annette Sharp revealed in her bookBlonde Ambition: Roxy Jacenko Unfiltered.
She fell pregnant during their relationship and the couple married on March 11, 2012 — a few months after the birth of their first child, daughter Pixie Rose, and then later had their son Hunter.
Jacenko manages both of her children’s careers with Pixie, now aged 11, already considered a tween entrepreneur with her companies Pixie’s Bows and Pixie’s Pix Toy Store.
Pixie has more than 147K Instagram followers, while Hunter has more than 20K. Jacenko has 268K followers alone and often posts personal as well as business-related content.
She’s upfront about her cosmetic surgeries and procedures. She’s admitted to having a nose job, breast implants and Botox to name a few — and is unapologetic about it.
In 2021, she told bodyandsoul about her beauty and health routine which also includes fake tans and hair extensions. She revealed on Instagram in 2022 she dissolved her lip fillers and instead gets a “lip flip” — Botox injected into parts of the upper lip.
Jacenko recently posted an almost unrecognisable picture of herself 18 years ago when she started her Sweaty Betty business — before the cosmetic surgery and her transformation into a blonde eastern suburbs society girl and social media influencer.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer just weeks after her husband was jailed for insider trading in 2016.
Career
Jacenko started her Sweaty Betty PR company when she was 24 years old with relatively no experience in the field, no university degree and had only half-completed a TAFE course.
Since then she managed to build a massive client base and created a multimillion-dollar business with clients including Park Hyatt Sydney, Mirvac Retail, Lorna Jane Active and Stan, to name a few.
As part of the Roxy Jacenko Group, she is also the director of The Ministry of Talent, a talent agency which includes both her children as clients, and a content creation agency called Social Union.
The Sweaty Betty website now leads Jacenko’s The Ministry of Talent website, which is now her business focus.
Jacenko also published her own book in 2018 — Roxy’s Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks — and has held seminars in the past to give advice on how to start and run a successful business.
She had her own short-lived reality TV series called I Am … Roxy in 2019 where her private and work life were aired for the world to see.
She has also appeared as a contestant on SAS Australia in 2020 (where she quit following just six hours of filming after being paid a rumoured $200,000); and The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.
Her career helps her afford her $6.5m Vaucluse six-bedroom three-storey mansion, $400,000 Aston Martin Vantage V8 as well as luxury holidays, private plants, designer clothes and accessories, and lavish parties.
In May 2023, she sold her mansion for $16m — $2m over the price guide.
In November 2022, she announced she was stepping away from Sweaty Betty to spend more time with her kids.
When the Covid pandemic hit, she revealed she had lost 85 per cent of her business within days and sold off some of her pre-loved designer threads online to stay afloat.
has spent time building it back up and working on other business interests like her daughter’s toy store.
After she sold her Vaucluse home, rumours began to circulate she was leaving Sydney for good — which was confirmed and she and her family made the move to Singapore in August 2023.
Her husband Oliver had already relocated there earlier for business.
Controversies
She was close friends with Candice Warner — publicly supporting her and her cricketer husband David during his ‘sandpaper’ ball tampering scandal in 2018.
But their appearance on SAS Australia led to the end of their friendship after the pair were in a physical boxing fight.
At the time Jacenko said: “Someone who carries on punching you when your back is turned, and then sacks you some two weeks later as management after four years of hard work and support would need to be delusional to think I would want to be friends.”
Her marriage was put under the microscope during her husband’s very public trial, which led to him being sentenced to two years in jail for insider trading in 2016.
Jacenko turned up to court every day to support Curtis, wearing designer clothes and accessories of course, which caused some criticism.
He was sent to jail for one year (and released on a $2000 bond after that time) putting their marriage to the test, especially after she was photographed kissing her ex, Sydney society scion Nabil Gazal while Curtis was still incarcerated at Cooma Correctional Centre.
In 2017, she told News Corp she suffered a breakdown at that time and considered divorce as the pressure mounted on her.
“I didn’t know what to do — stay married or cut my losses and run. It was very hard. At the 11-month point, I lost my marbles completely,” she said at the time.
“I had this facade on 24/7 that everything was fine, my business was flying, my children were wonderful, but inside I was broken.”
But their marriage managed to survive — they renewed their vows in 2017 — and they are still going strong years after his release.
In September 2022, Jacenko was holidaying at the exclusive Fijian resort Kokomo with her mum Doreen when she managed to irritate a couple lounging nearby, who ended up being Graham Smorgon and his wife Annette, members of one of the nation’s wealthiest families.
After being reportedly “shushed” by the family whose identity she did not know, Jacenko, aired her ire on Instagram along with an unsanctioned picture of them before deleting the picture and post within hours.
Her business premises were also targeted over the years — first with a targeted 2019 graffiti attack at her Paddington office with the phrase “Roxy if a c**t” sprawled on the walls and then a traffic barrier nearby falsely tagged “Roxy Jacenko is a crook”, and “Roxy is a dog”.
Months later a “poo jogger” was caught on camera defecating outside her offices.
Jacenko has also been publicly called out for her extravagant spending on herself and her children, including a lavish 11th birthday party for Pixie, forking out $40,000 for the nightclub-themed party, followed a year later by a $100k 12th birthday party for Pixie.
“Pixie turns 12 when we will be living in Singapore, so it was important for us to give her a very special celebration,” Jacenko explained at the time.
“She was very apprehensive about the move and has a most wonderful friendship circle, so we wanted to celebrate the wonderful friendships she has prior to leaving.”
In 2023, Jacenko came under fire again after hosting a $50k birthday party for her son Hunter who turned nine.
It was a Hawaiian-themed, three-hour cruise on Sydney Harbour on 122ft superyacht Ghost II in May.
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