Roxy Jacenko says she’s not Candice, David Warner’s PR

Roxy Jacenko clarifies her role with David Warner, as reports emerge of a tell-all TV interview with the disgraced cricketer.

Candice Warner, right, is comforted by Roxy Jacenko as her husband David Warner speaks at his press conference. Picture: Channel Nine

Roxy Jacenko has clarified her role at David Warner’s ball tampering press conference, saying she was there only as a friend to support the cricketer’s wife Candice Warner.

“Next I’ll be blamed for providing the sandpaper — that’s about the only thing left!!” said the PR queen, who was accused of “self-promotion” after being filmed at a tearful Mrs Warner’s side during the press conference on Saturday.

Critics were quick to label the Warners’ return to Sydney a “PR stunt”, interpreting their walk through the airport with their young children a “staged performance” and singling out Jacenko as puppet master — a theory she has dismissed as “pathetic”.

“Candice is a dear friend, thus my support, but I am not their PR,” Jacenko told The Australian.

She said media reports to the contrary were based on unverified assumptions about her role.

The publicist also shot down claims that she was brokering a $1 million tell-all interview on behalf of the suspended vice-captain, after reports that Warner’s sparing public apology was intended to hold back the most television-worthy details for a paid on-air exclusive.

The Australian can reveal that Warner has engaged spinner and former Today Tonight reporter Andrew Bourke to advise on handling the public relations fallout of the ball-tampering scandal.

Bourke declined to comment, referring all queries to Warner’s agent, who denied the claims.

The former journalist is no stranger to high-profile television exclusives; he is believed to have engineered the 2007 Today Tonight appearance of Schapelle Corby’s former friend Jodie Power, who sensationally accused Corby’s sister Mercedes of involvement in the drugs trade — resulting in a defamation payout.

Power was paid $100,000 for the series of interviews, but her credibility was thrown into doubt when it emerged that she had failed a lie-detector test, and in 2008 a NSW Supreme Court jury found that the Seven Network had defamed Mercedes Corby by airing the accusations.

Warner and teammates Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft have until next Wednesday to appeal their suspensions, and any potential television deal is believed to be unlikely while their fates hang in the balance.

Cricket Australia slapped Smith and Warner, as captain and vice-captain of the Australian team, with 12-month bans, while Bancroft copped a nine-month ban.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association has dubbed the length of the bans, which will cost the players millions of dollars in contracts and endorsements, as severe compared to similar international incidents.