Warning: This article contains information about eating disorders which may be distressing for some readers.
In July of 2016, Australia’s most prominent PR personality Roxy Jacenko revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
She’d found a lump in her left breast while showering just weeks after her husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading.
Over the next 12 months, the 37-year-old documented how she lost 12 kilograms in just 12 months, all the while sharing her ‘fitness journey’ with her 210,000 Instagram followers.
But now, Roxy has confessed she was actually in a “really bad place” and her weight loss was actually the result of a “problematic” relationship with food.
“There is no doubt I had a problem,” she told Daily Mail Australia this week.
“I dropped to 49kg at one point in 2016 -2017, it was a bad time for me.
“I was having personal issues, had been diagnosed with cancer, managing my businesses (Ministry of Talent, Sweaty Betty PR and Pixies Bows), had the two kids and a husband that was in jail.”
Despite knowing she was “starving herself” and realising she was in a “really bad place”, Roxy said she was spurred on by positive comments left by fans on her Instagram snaps.
Listen: Anne Tonner tells Mia Freedman about the moment she knew her daughter was very, very sick. (Post continues after audio…)
“It’s funny how when people say you are looking ‘great’ even though you are well on your way to being skin and bone that you buy into it and keep trying to get slimmer,” she said.
Roxy said she would often push food around her plate while dining out, before saying she was “full” and refusing to finish it.
“I was obsessed, unhealthily obsessed.”
She also admitted her mother would often have to “force food” on her during their weekly family dinners.
She told her Instagram followers she was training five or more days a week, and revealed she was “eating clean” and following a strict diet of just sashimi sushi and “a couple of green juices” a day.
“Truth be told, the sushi diet was stupid. How I did it for 12 months in hindsight, I do not know,” Roxy said of her unhealthy eating habits.
Thankfully, Roxy has a much healthier and wholistic approach to her weight and diet, and has adopted a “balanced gym and eating regime”.
If you or someone you know is in need of help please call The Butterfly Foundation’s National Helpline on 1800 334 673.
Listen to Mia Freedman’s full interview with Anne Tonner about parenting a daughter with an eating disorder.