Inside Roxy Jacenko’s year from hell – celebrity feuds, devastating injuries and crumbling business

Roxy Jacenko has survived the year from hell – and COVID-19 is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Despite her glamorous image, the Sydney publicist, 40, has endured a slew of bad luck over the past 12 months, ranging from business disasters to high-profile feuds. 

Here’s why Roxy is counting down the days until 2020 is a thing of the past.   

Roxy’s first major set back of 2020 took place in March, when her business took an enormous blow due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph at the time, the entrepreneur revealed she had lost ’85 percent’ of her PR company Sweaty Betty PR in ‘just 72 hours’, admitting: ‘We have been hit extremely hard.’

Devastatingly, Roxy said she had been forced to let go of ‘four extremely loyal and dedicated team members’. 

‘It’s been an extremely sad and surreal week for me as a small-business owner, when you watch something you have worked quite literally seven days a week for 24 hours a day tumble down in a matter of days with no certainty on when you will be able to exercise the plan on rebuilding,’ she lamented. 

Things went from bad to worse in June when Roxy fractured her pelvis and hip after falling off a horse. 

‘I am okay, I have a fractured pelvis and hip after a saddle slip accident when I was riding last week,’ Roxy told Daily Mail Australia at the time. 

She added: ‘Spent two days at St Vincent’s [Hospital] however no surgery. The team were remarkable in both Emergency and CCU.’ 

‘My Orthopaedic Surgeon is confident that over the course of the next six weeks the areas will heal themselves with bed rest, non-weight bearing movements on the left leg hence the use of crutches for any movement.’  

Just six weeks after her injury, Roxy bravely joined the cast of Channel Seven’s military-style reality show SAS Australia – a decision she likely now regrets. 

Despite her valiant efforts to keep up with the the other recruits, Roxy chose to quit the show just six hours into filming.  

‘I can’t do it. I actually can’t… My leg’s killing me. I can’t do it,’ she said, after the instructors requested that the celebrities submerge themselves in freezing cold water. 

Roxy was brutally trolled on social media when her dramatic exit aired on screens in October, prompting the mother-of-two to furiously defend herself in a lengthy Instagram post.  

In the essay, Roxy explained that she’d fractured her hip and pelvis just six weeks before filming the physically demanding program. 

‘For the f**k wits that have left comments on the previous post, let me explain how weak and fake I am. I fractured my hip and pelvis when on a horse for a job – the saddle slipped and I fell off,’ she fumed.  

‘I got back on the horse so as not to bother the rest of the riders and disrupt their ride and then took myself to emergency where I spent the next two days. Followed by 6 weeks on my back with daily Clexane injections and physio, orthopedic surgeon appointments etc,’ Roxy continued. 

‘So if weak and pathetic is showing up to SAS Australia  because I had committed to it 6 months prior and put 6 days a week training into it no matter what my injuries were well then so be it.’ 

Roxy also shared a number of photos taken while she was in hospital following the injury, as well as a heartbreaking photo of herself hobbling on crutches.    

This year also saw Roxy endure several high-profile feuds, the most controversial being with her former friend and client Candice Warner.  

The pair ended their friendship acrimoniously after the cricket WAG punched her in the face as part of a challenge on SAS Australia in July.  

While Candice happily took several swipes at Roxy, the Sydney publicist refused to retaliate because of their longstanding friendship. 

‘You know what? Is [Candice] really my friend anymore? No,’ Roxy told The Kyle and Jackie O Show of their feud.  

‘You know why I never hit back? She’s my mate and I’m not going to smack [her] in the face for other people’s entertainment,’ she added.

‘You wouldn’t continue punching when the person – me – turns their back and continue punching them in the back of the head. In boxing, that’s totally not allowed. The reality is, I can’t punch my then-friend in the face for people’s entertainment.’

‘You look back and go, “F**k, I should have whacked her one,” but you know what? I’m bigger than that and I’ve got respect for other people,’ she continued. 

Roxy said she reached out to Candice after filming the show in the NSW Snowy Mountains in August and tried to repair their broken friendship. 

But instead of accepting the olive branch, Roxy claimed that Candice simply ‘sacked her’ as her manager instead.  

Candice has since signed with The Society Agency, the main competitor of Roxy’s influencer management company, The Ministry of Talent.  

Last month, Candice addressed her feud with Roxy on the Fitzy and Wippa radio show, saying she wasn’t ‘losing sleep’ over it. 

Roxy’s war of words with Candice comes amid her rumoured rift with another longtime friend, millionaire socialite Francesca Packer.

As reported by The Sun-Herald earlier this month, the pair recently ‘abruptly parted company, both professionally and personally’.

This was supposedly the reason why Roxy hadn’t attended Francesca’s star-studded 26th birthday party on Sydney Harbour on November 29.

But Roxy later denied there was any bad blood between the two women, telling Daily Mail Australia on December 11: ‘There is no feud. She’s a lovely girl, and I’ve been around her since she was 20 years of age.’

She explained that she hadn’t been at Francesca’s party because she was busy running her seven businesses and taking care of her two children, Pixie and Hunter.

Francesca, who is the granddaughter of late media mogul Kerry Packer, hired Roxy to handle her growing media profile in 2014.

The pair, who share a mutual love for designer handbags and flash cars, soon became inseparable, so it was surprising when their ‘feud’ made headlines.

Meanwhile, Roxy made headlines this week after her former Sweaty Betty PR employee Holly Asser, 28, broke her silence on the circumstances surrounding her shock exit from the firm.  

Publicist Holly, who left the Paddington-based company in late 2018, confirmed she was no longer speaking to Roxy during an Instagram Q&A on Sunday. 

Holly, who was answering her followers’ questions while in hotel quarantine, was asked if she was still in contact with Roxy.

‘No,’ she replied, adding a smiling emoji.

Another follower then asked, ‘Why did you leave Sweaty Betty?’ and she offered a more in-depth response.

She wrote: ‘Okay, a lot of questions on this and this is all I’ll say: I think in your career you always need to keep learning and when you feel like you’ve learned all you can in a company or role, it’s probably time to move on.’

Holly then hinted that her exit from Sweaty Betty PR may not have been amicable.

She continued: ‘My departure was a little while coming and I think if you’re familiar with the company you might know why my friends and I decided to move on.’

Holly’s reference to her friends leaving the company at about the same time aligns with two staff departures in early 2019: Grace Garrick and Daniel Goldstein.

During her tenure at Sweaty Betty PR, Holly was one of several attractive blonde staffers described in the press as ‘clones’ of Roxy.

Her senior position and close friendship with her boss earned her the status of ‘chief clone’.

At the time of her resignation, Holly was more guarded about the reasons for her exit, telling The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘It was just time for me to do something different.’  

Roxy responded to her ex-employee’s claims on Monday, telling Daily Mail Australia: ‘It’s been three years since she was employed by me and she’s still not moved on. Must be missing me to still be talking about it!

‘It blows my mind how childish a person can be. She wanted a reaction and knew if she used my name she would get it, which she did.’

Holly still works in public relations in Sydney and is employed by Edelman, the largest PR firm in the world by revenue.

Roxy also faced criticism earlier this month after she splashed $84,500 on a luxury car for her nine-year-old daughter Pixie Curtis. 

The glamazon raised eyebrows when she shared a photo of a black Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class to Instagram, alongside the caption: ‘Visits today from fineautofinishing for Pixie’s car.’

Fans flocked to social media to criticise the PR queen for purchasing the car for her daughter, who is still too young to drive. 

‘Seriously a car for someone who can’t drive for how many years,’ one person wrote.

‘How can a child have a car?’ another person asked. ‘Pixie’s car?! Envy doesn’t begin to describe it,’ one commented.

‘Sorry but I absolutely ADORE the fact that Pixie has a car,’ another person said.

Roxy shares Pixie with her husband Oliver Curtis, who she wed in 2012. They are also proud parents to six-year-old son Hunter.