In the last week or so, we’ve heard a lot in the media about Roxy Jacenko and husband Oliver Curtis.
Following Curtis’ release from prison in 2017 after serving time for insider trading, and the release of the PR businesswoman’s new book Roxy’s Little Black Book of Tips and Tricks, the couple have been speaking candidly about how their lives transpired during that difficult 2016 period.
As was highly publicised at the time, Curtis was sentence to a maximum of two years in prison for conspiring to commit insider trading, to be released after one year on a good behaviour bond, in June, 2016. After tearfully fare-welling his wife and children, the former investment banker traded his suit for a jumpsuit and shoes without laces.
Speaking on Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa radio show on Wednesday morning, 38-year-old Jacenko went into the details of how she helped her husband prepare for prison, and from the outside once he was there.
“Well, look, a friend of mine did tell me that having some money in prison when you first get there is very beneficial,” the mum-of-two said.
“So I may have put a couple of hundred dollars, stitched them into the lining of his jacket. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. [They] need [money] for buy ups, if it’s freezing cold, for a doona, for food, if you’re like him, you like to read the newspaper.”
The Sweaty Betty PR CEO also went into what life for Curtis was like in prison, saying he kept “his head down and did what he needed to do.”
“He’d been given information to wear thermals underneath your suit because if you’ll go in, you’ll need them. It’s minus degrees in there.”
“In the beginning, when Oli was in Cooma prison, he was in the museum where people can go and see what the prison used to be like… and then he worked in factory sewing stuff.
“He got into a few rumbles, but he’s very good at adapting, and he’s proven that… but boarding school and jail are a tiny bit different. Look, he adapted. I was worried he wouldn’t shut his mouth and he’s be Mister Cocky… but he was fine.”
On Chanel Seven’s Sunday Night program, Jacenko and Curtis also touched on how losing her husband and the father of their children affected their family, and the timing of it, which coincided with Jacenko’s breast cancer diagnosis.
“I was very resentful, ‘Life is a mess, and you gave me cancer,’ That’s what I said. So I told him I blamed him,” she said on the program which aired on Sunday.
Roxy Jacenko sat down with Mia Freedman on No Filter to talk about public hatred, her children’s Instagram accounts, and her husband’s jail sentence. Get it in you ears below.
“I was resentful that I had to be on my own. I had to work. I had to look after the children, I didn’t… I couldn’t cope. I had to have this public persona that was, well, everything wasn’t fine. I mean, I went from a normal person to… [someone] who didn’t eat and went out and indulged in things I shouldn’t have indulged in. I had cancer. I weighed, like, 45 kilos. And, yeah, I said to him, ‘It’s your fault’.”
When asked whether he regretted the actions that led to his conviction, Curtis appeared devastated.
“Of course I regret it. You can’t not regret it. I was a kid, you know? I was a silly kid,” he said.
The couple appear to have moved past the events of 2016 and continue to parent their two children Pixie and Hunter.
Top Comments
I wish you would stop covering these people. I have less respect for white collar criminals than I do for a lot of others.
As someone who works in mental health and in the criminal system - many people who end up there have histories of massive trauma and abuse which they go on to replicate.
White collar criminals like this bloke are just massive greedy narcissists who think only of themselves and often come from good upbringings with a sense of entitlement. Stop giving them airtime.
Clothes & personal belongings are confiscated before they get inside the prison & a prison uniform is handed over, so I doubt the $ did him any good what so ever.