Her husband has just been sent to jail. Why all the hate for Roxy Jacenko?

Have you heard of the hate-follow?

Of course you have. You might be doing it now. People and sites that you follow just to spark your outrage, so you can sigh and show your friends and be all like, ‘Would you look at this fool?’

Roxy Jacenko has her fair share of hate-followers. And hate-readers. And hate-clickers.

There are few people in the Australian media landscape who get as much attention, and attract as much vitriol as Jacenko, who runs a PR business in Sydney and a kids’ accessories business on the World Wide Web.

Click through to see the Jacenko-Curtis family on Instagram. Post continues after gallery…

This week, she’s copped a bruising over a letter she wrote to the judge in her husband’s court case. Oliver Curtis has been convicted of Insider Trading, and on Friday, he was sentenced to two years in jail with a minimum of one year.

You can only imagine what an awful moment it must have been for Roxy and her family.

In defense of Roxy

Roxy had earlier written a letter asking that the judge doesn’t send her husband to prison. In it, she said that Curtis was the “primary carer” for their two children Pixie and Hunter, and that they would suffer the most if their father was taken away.

The internet was not sympathetic. Commenters piled on to urge Roxy to spend more time with her children, to ‘dump’ her dishonest husband, to ‘pay for a nanny’, and more, less polite sentiments. Words like ‘hate’ and ‘loathe’ were thrown around.

It's ever thus. Whenever Mamamia runs a story about Roxy Jacenko, two things happen. People click, and people vent.

Depending on your source, the root of this vitriol springs from different wells. She's rich. She's flashy. She "exploits" her children by posting about them on social media and monetising their childhoods with Pixie's Bows.

But there are plenty of other celebrities who post pictures of their children online and only receive glowing praise. Bec Judd, anyone?

There are plenty of other people who have started children's clothing lines and used their own kids as models. Some of them might be referred to as "mumtrepreneurs" and commended for their resourcefulness.

And there are many, many other celebrities who are happy to post pictures of their fashion, their homes, their ride, none of which you or I could afford, and manage not to be eviscerated below the line.

So is there something else going on here?

A photo posted by Roxy Jacenko (@roxyjacenko) on Jun 8, 2016 at 12:49am PDT

Roxy is young, brash and successful. She is unapologetic about her ambition. She is unapologetic about her desire to succeed and make money. And she is unapologetic about the fact she loves her kids, but she spends most of her time at work.

She famously went straight back to business after both her births, tapping away at her emails from her hospital bed. In her letter to the court, she describes how the long hours of running her business mean she is rarely at home for bath time, meal times and weekend family movie marathons.

Apparently, we don't like that.

She shows off the fruits of that labour. She's a woman who loves labels, and look-at-me cars, and shiny, enormous homes filled with fresh flowers. She wants her success to be noticed, and she loves beautiful things.

We don't like that either.

And she says what she thinks. She took no prisoners when she wiped the floor with the opposition on reality show The Celebrity Apprentice. She loudly and harshly called out the people who doctored pictures of her daughter and circulated them as a 'joke'. She turned up to a work seminar after her nose reconstruction with a bandage on her face and a drip in her arm.

We really don't like that.

Watch Roxy Jacenko appear on The Project to discuss the doctored photo controversy below. Post continues...

Is our real problem with Roxy Jacenko that she's a woman who won't play by our rules? Is it that how we like our public-facing  - even the really, really rich ones - humble, self-deprecating and modest?

Does a woman who admits she loves her job and gets a great deal of satisfaction out of pursuing success make us uncomfortable?

Do we automatically distrust a female who works long hours and leaves the kids in the hands of Dad, Gran and Nanny?

Surely a woman like that should be consumed by mother guilt? Surely she should be apologetic for the time she invests in her business when the kids are in the bath?  Surely she should be ashamed of herself?

Roxy Jacenko is not ashamed.

Whatever you think of her husband's crime - and personally, I have zero-sympathy for rich men exploiting their privilege - it was HE who committed it, not her.

Whatever you think of their extravagant lifestyle, isn't it commendable that she would be advocating for the father of her kids?

Whatever you think of Roxy's business model, is there something wrong with her being worried about her children when their dad might be about to disappear?

Roxy Jacenko's values might not match up with yours. She might not live the kind of family life you aspire to. But maybe it's time to consider what it is about her in-your-face lifestyle that bugs you so much?

After all, we can always just unfollow.