PR queen Roxy Jacenko thanks her haters as she shuts Sweaty Betty
She’s attracted a lot of criticism over the years but as Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko steps away from her business, she wants to thank the haters for giving her the lifestyle she craved.
NSW
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To all the people who have hated on Roxy Jacenko over the past 18 years, she has two words to say — thank you.
Because the fame — which was never her end goal — means she now has the choice to take the life she’s worked hard creating and step away, making room for a simpler one.
“I say thank you, because they made me the most relevant PR girl — the only PR girl in Australia that you know the first and last name of,” Jacenko told The Saturday Telegraph.
“The PR girl who was on Celebrity Apprentice, the only PR girl who was on SAS (Australia) for six hours and got paid the most.
“And bought me the Bentleys, the Ferraris, the Birkin bag. So I say thank you — because you kept me relevant.”
Sydney’s PR queen stunned social media on Thursday, announcing that after 18 years she would walk away from the industry that’s made her — and her clients — famous.
“I always wanted to be rich, not f**king famous,” she laughed.
“I never ever wanted fame — I wanted to be rich and I wanted to be successful — but at the same time, that notoriety built the business.
“I actually blame Phillip Koch for doing the first ever article in The Sunday Telegraph many, many moons ago.
“Because I got a taste for it and was like, ‘oh, yeah, I want to be in the newspaper each week’ … I soon realised I didn’t want to be in the newspaper at all, thank you very much.”
In her own words, Jacenko was a “hungry 24-year-old desperate to succeed” when she started Sweaty Betty PR with no uni degree, a half-finished TAFE course and four months of experience almost two decades ago.
Announcing the news on her own terms, she posted a photo of herself 18 years ago as someone you wouldn’t recognise as the woman she is today.
And today she closes the doors and walks away.
She hasn’t sold the business, she just wants what we all do — to lighten the load and have the time to enjoy what she has worked for.
“The funny thing is, no one else would post a photo like that, but I think that’s been my edge my whole career,” she said.
“I’ve never worried about what you thought, whether you liked or whether you loathed that – and I also never really worried about whether I could do whatever I tried to do … I took every opportunity that came my way.”
On Friday she had clients calling in tears, as well as her daughter Pixie because, like the rest of the world, she found out about her mother’s new life on Instagram.
“I can honestly say to you I have literally dedicated every f**king moment of my existence to the business,” she said.
“Pixie was actually very upset last night, she cried because I didn’t say anything to her — because for Pixie, at 11 years of age, she doesn’t know any different.
“I’ve lived and breathed it, even down to getting cancer, I went to work every day — every day I got radiation, I’d go to work.
“Not that I want an award for that, but what it has made me realise is, that’s enough.
“I’ve changed the game … It’s been 18 years and I’m done … I just want to enjoy my children.”
Jacenko will continue to run the Pixie’s Pix toy business — which she said gives her “pure joy” — as well as her creative talent management company Ministry of Talent and XRJ Celebrations.
“I just want to live my life,” she said.
“I feel now like I can breathe.”
Life in the spotlight
Jacenko has weathered a lot during her time in the public eye from supporting her husband Oliver Curtis during his court case and subsequent jail sentence, to battling breast cancer.
In 2016, Curtis was jailed for one year for insider trading after a trial where Jacenko was constantly filmed by his side — wearing designer clothes and accessories of course.
She kept working and looking after the couple’s children during his incarceration at Cooma Correctional Centre but was also diagnosed with breast cancer at that time.
She had surgery to remove the lump as well as radiation treatment.
Although their marriage reached breaking point around that time, Jacenko and Curtis’ relationship survived and they are still going strong years later.
Jacenko also admitted that the 2020 Covid pandemic caused her to lose 85 per cent of her multimillion-dollar PR business and had to let some of her staff go at the time.
But she managed to bounce back before making the announcement that she’s stepping away from the PR business.
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