The two words that convinced Roxy Jacenko to quit Sydney

Roxy who?

These are the two words Sydney media magnet Roxy Jacenko says convinced her to quit Sydney, where she has scaled the dizzying heights of provincial celebritydom and endured its lowest lows, and relocate her family to Singapore.

Roxy Jacenko is leaving Sydney to relocate to Singapore.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Sydney without Roxy is like a party pie without sauce, but PS can reveal she and her kids are leaving in July to be with her husband Oliver Curtis, son of mining magnate Nick Curtis, who has rebuilt his corporate life in the tech space since being jailed for insider trading in 2016.

“I was trying to get a restaurant booking in Singapore, it was a popular place. I don’t have much trouble with that in Sydney, but in Singapore it was a matter of ‘Roxy who?’ I actually found it really refreshing and a bit liberating,” the 42-year-old, who has endured a long reign on these pages, told PS exclusively this week.

“No one knows me there, no one has any preconceived idea of who or what I am, no one has any expectation, and best of all, no one actually cares!” she enthused, days after Sydney paparazzi photographed her walking the family dog.

Pixie Curtis and her mum Roxy Jacenko.Credit:

This week she listed her former offices in Paddington for sale, with the price tag expected to pass $10 million having bought it for $2.6 million nine years ago.

As Jacenko chatted with PS yet another volley of stories was bubbling away on the Daily Mail website’s “sidebar of shame”. They ranged from her latest handbag acquisition, her lack of a wedding ring and forensic coverage of her 12-year-old daughter Pixie’s latest beauty procedure (something called an eyelash lift).

Indeed, Pixie has been in the news since before she could talk. She began fashion blogging from eight months of age (ghostwritten by mum), including reporting from the front row at a Dora the Explorer runway fashion show. She and her brother, Hunter, now 9, have been enrolled in a private international school in Singapore, while the family has taken a lease on a luxury apartment near Orchard Road.

“I think it will be good for the kids to experience a new culture, a new way of life, to be surrounded by kids from all over the world,” Jacenko added.

“I only ever wanted the media attention for the PR business, it was never for me personally, that came as a byproduct. Now I’m bored with it, but it has become a bigger issue as the kids have gotten older. Pixie comes back from school upset after being told by other kids her parents have split. They read it on their phones. That can be pretty hard to manage.

Roxy Jacenko says she has an “unconventional marriage” with Oliver Curtis.

“For the record, Ollie has never liked wearing his wedding ring because he hates jewellery. And to be honest, I never really liked my own wedding ring. We have an unconventional marriage, we’ve been doing it long distance for a long time. We are not co-dependent and never have been, that’s just how we like it. Ollie is my husband, I love him, he is the father of my kids ... and we are moving to Singapore to be a family.”

Jacenko has shut down her Sweaty Betty publicity business and her daughter’s Pixie’s Bows hair accessories business, ending her distribution deal with Myer. She’s also sold off her designer candles start-up and sold her last Fidget toy, but will manage from afar her Ministry Of Talent social media influencer agency, with new offices being set up in Double Bay.

Fresh from the $16 million sale of the family’s sleek Vaucluse home, which included a professional beauty parlour, gymnasium and an illuminated wall on which to mount her million-dollar Hermes handbag collection, her Paddington sale will bring to a close a major chapter in her much-storied life.

Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis during the 2016 trial.Credit: Daniel Munoz

In true Jacenko style, there’s no time for nostalgia. Despite the building being the scene for several of Jacenko’s highest and lowest points over the years, from graffiti attacks to over-the-top product launches, she’s more focused on turning a profit. Having bought it for $2.6 million nine years ago, she’s set to more than triple her money.

Royal study tour

At 17, Prince Charles – now King Charles III – spent six months at the Timber Tops campus of the elite Geelong Grammar School in 1966 to harden him up, later saying the experience in the rugged Victorian alps had “bashed” the “Pommy bits off me”.

A model royal, Prince Nikolai of Denmark walks the runway for Dior Homme in 2018.Credit: Getty

However, that’s probably not quite what’s in store for the next royal headed Down Under: the extremely photogenic Count Nikolai of Monpezat, who until January had been known as Prince Nikolai of Denmark. His arrival in August has the city’s party planners in a lather. Invitations are being prepared.

The part-time male model and Copenhagen Business School student will be in Sydney for four months to continue his university studies. The seventh in line to the Danish throne also clearly enjoys the trappings of being a blue blood.

Sydney bound: Count Nikolai of Monpezat and his girlfriend Benedikte Thoustrup.Credit: Instagram

Scrolling through his social media feeds reveals an enviable life for any 23-year-old, from gracing the cover of Scandinavian Vogue, partying with the stars at a swanky Cartier party and ski trips in the Swiss Alps.

He will spend a semester studying at the University of Technology Sydney and is bringing his glamorous social media influencer girlfriend Benedikte Thoustrup with him and has been looking for an apartment in the city.

Last year his grandmother Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announced he would be stripped of his princely title in an effort to streamline the Danish royal family. The move shocked Danish royal watchers and left his father, Prince Joachim, underwhelmed. He later announced he was doing a Prince Harry and moving to the US with his wife and two youngest children.

Kochie’s hot seat shuffle

Nearly six months after this column first revealed Matt Shirvington would take over David Koch’s million-dollar “throne” at Sunrise, PS hears the behind-the-scenes jostling for position would rival anything occurring in Westeros. And it’s been going on for years.

At one time the front-runner for the chair was Basil Zempilas, a Perth import and a personal favourite of Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes. However he got tired of commuting across the Nullarbor and gave up on his TV ambitions to become lord mayor of Stokes’ home town, Perth.

The contenders to replace David Koch on Sunrise.Credit: Fairfax

While the “Adele incident” played a factor in diminishing Matt Doran’s chances, he has settled into his gig on Weekend Sunrise. Mark Beretta is seemingly content to stick with sports, while Michael “Musher” Usher, once a firm favourite, is sitting pretty doing Seven’s news, with his The Latest: Seven News program tracking well.

Then there is Larry Emdur. He is happy with the hours of The Morning Show and his natural quiz show habitat doing The Chase, in between managing his multimillion-dollar property flipping business. As for Chris Brown, who is set to join Seven in July, PS hears he was never a serious contender for Sunrise ... yet.

Failure to launch

On Thursday night the late John Olsen’s two children, Dinosaur Designs co-founder Louise and gallerist Tim, hosted an intimate dinner at Peter Conistis’ sandstone Greek brasserie Ploos with gun-barrel views of the Sydney Opera House sails alight with Olsen’s signature artworks.

Tim Olsen shared a story about his HSC days, when his major artwork, a ceramic sculpture, “exploded” in the kiln a week before deadline.

Sydney gallerist Tim Olsen and his late father, artist John Olsen, at John’s home and studio in the NSW Southern Highlands in 2020.Credit: James Brickwood

“I was distraught. Dad said ‘its OK, we can fix this’. He really wanted to help,” Olsen drolly shared with the audience.

Father and son threw themselves into a series of still life drawings.

“Dad drew them, and I coloured them in. But it didn’t impress the markers, I failed art, and so did John Olsen!”

Will Trevor wear the crown?

Sydney cabaret extraordinaire Trevor Ashley calls it the “Eurovision of Drag”, and tonight on Paramount+ he’ll be representing Australia in the new Ru Paul-produced reality TV talent quest Queen Of The Universe during which the drag queens actually sing rather than mime.

Our great hope: Trevor Ashley is representing Australia in the Queen Of The Universe competition.Credit: Paramount+

“I’m going GLOBAL! It was such a wild rollercoaster. We filmed in London last August and I have no idea who won because they haven’t told any of us. We won’t find out for weeks,” says Ashley, who has wowed Sydney for years with his shows, from the hilarious Fat Swan to Liza On An E.

Fat Swan from 2011.

PS gets the feeling he’s done pretty well. Ashley, who travelled over with 10 of his own costumes and as many wigs, kept getting through the rounds.

“We would go back to the hotel and less and less of the other queens would be there, but we were not allowed to talk to each other,” he said.

“I’m cautiously hopeful.”

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