It’s official, the Queen of PR is handing back her crown.
Last night, Roxy Jacenko announced on Instagram she would be stepping back from her core business, Sweaty Betty PR, to focus on some of her other main projects.
Posting a photo of a much younger, brunette version of herself from when she began the agency, Roxy shared her update in the caption.
“I have weathered storms one could only assume you would see on a miniseries and heck I think I’ve done it with gusto - but now, it’s time for me to hang my PR shoes up,” she said.
There’s no doubt Roxy has pushed her career to its limits and beyond, going on to found The Ministry of Talent, candle and homewares brand XRJCelebrations, and Pixie’s Pix, a toy and accessory brand she runs with her young daughter.
But now, she feels confident Sweaty Betty can go on without her.
“It’s been something I have been thinking about for some time, the timing was right, rather leave at my peak and make the most,” Roxy told Mamamia of the big change.
“Of the various other opportunities in front of me, not to mention spending time to live – something I haven’t really done as a normal human should in the past 18 years,” she added.
And as for her next move, she admits she doesn’t really have one planned, although her existing projects will definitely keep her busy.
Instead, she plans to spend her time “gardening, visiting our home in Tasmania, and playing with my kids”.
“And [I] might as well take up golf – plenty money in that if I get good!” she joked.
In celebration of Roxy’s PR career, we’re looking back at some of her most memorable moments.
I Am... Roxy!
Roxy is well known for her brutal honesty, so when we heard she’d be starring in a reality TV pilot, we knew there’d be no holds barred. Four minutes into I Am… Roxy!, we saw her claim “perfection is key” in an argument with her husband, Oliver Curtis, over the size of the lightbulbs in a freshly installed makeup mirror in her recently renovated mansion. We were hooked immediately, but unfortunately the pilot never quite got off the ground. However, it wasn’t the last time we’d see Roxy on our screens.
SAS Australia
With that much grit and determination, Roxy was a perfect candidate for the Australian version of SAS Australia, which aired in 2020. Unfortunately, she didn’t last long, quitting the show just six hours into the two-week course. On Instagram, she shared she’d fractured her hip and pelvis only six weeks before heading onto the set, and refused to take any criticism surrounding the stint. In 2022, Ant Middleton drew attention to her record short performance on radio, leading her to respond immediately.
“Shortest time, highest paid,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “You tell me who’s smarter!”
The poo jogger
In 2019, Roxy discovered that somebody was defecating on the street outside her Sydney office building, and posted on Instagram to find the culprit.
While she’d been the target of graffiti attacks in the past, Roxy shared her thoughts that the ‘poo jogger’ wasn’t targeting her personally.
“She just appears to get a kick out of the location. With cameras on every angle of my headquarters this appears to heighten the desire as you would need to have your eyes closed to miss the fact you are being filmed,” Roxy said at the time.
A prison sentence and a cancer diagnosis
Roxy’s husband, Oliver Curtis, spent a year in prison after being charged with insider trading. Around the same time, Roxy discovered she had breast cancer. However, her indomitable spirit meant neither event could break her down.
“Yes, everyone would expect if your husband goes to jail and you get cancer you’d crawl into a hole and you know, ‘woe is me’, but I think that’s what everyone wanted me to do,” Roxy said in 2019 on The Juggling Act podcast.
“That was not the solution to getting through it. The solution to getting through it was to maintain my life as it was, normally. And that was the most important thing for my children as well – that their life didn’t become something different to what it was the day before.”
Roxy’s work ethic
While this can’t be boiled down to one moment, Roxy is very well known for her unbelievable work ethic. Speaking at a 2017 In Conversation event, she spoke about the affect her hard work has had on her life. She shared that she had “fallen out and been stitched back in”, and confirmed that she did wake up on the hour each night to check her phone and respond to emails - she is notorious for responding to every single one in a timely manner.
“Work is my life,” she told the host, Sally Obermeder.
Feature Image: Instagram/Getty/Mamamia.