TLDR
Roxy Jacenko has permanently left Australia, sold her assets and formally ended her PR career after 22 years. Her number plates alone fetched $309,000 at auction. The Ministry of Talent passes to employee Emily Hayman, leaving boutique founder-led PR without its most prominent practitioner.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Roxy Jacenko announced on 13 September 2026 that she had quit Australia permanently, selling her furniture, her Range Rover and her custom number plates to close out a life she had built from scratch at 24. The number plates alone cleared $309,000 at auction.[1] The Instagram post that carried the news marked her permanent exit from Australia. It formally ended her PR career after 22 years.
"Eighteen years ago this was me. A hungry 24-year-old desperate to succeed (at something, actually anything)," Jacenko said.[1] She also said: "Fast forward to today and 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 to hang my PR shoes up (and no they were ever stilettos they were trainers, why? Cause you can't run in them) and say goodbye to my working life as I know it."[1]
Sweaty Betty PR Pty Ltd, registered on 2 April 2004 under ABN 67 108 599 266, ran for 22 years.[2] Jacenko founded it at 24 and built it into one of Australia's most visible boutique agencies, working across beauty, retail, technology and lifestyle. The business combined celebrity outreach with influencer-led content before either practice had a widely accepted name.
The wind-down was already underway before the announcement. Jacenko stepped down as director of Sweaty Betty in November 2022 and relocated to Singapore in 2023, and the September post confirmed what the prior two years had been showing: the operating businesses were done.
The Ministry of Talent has been handed to employee Emily Hayman.[1] Launched in 2012, The Ministry of Talent was Australia's first dedicated digital talent management agency.[3] It grew to manage influencer rosters across beauty, fashion, automotive and lifestyle, advising brands on partnerships and content strategy at a moment when that advice was genuinely scarce. Hayman now owns that history and the client relationships attached to it.
One business survives the exit. XRJ Celebrations, a homewares brand selling decorative sculptural celebration candles, launched in 2023 and continues trading.[4] The pattern fits a deliberate pivot from service businesses, which require a founder's daily attention, to product, which does not.
The practical question for the Australian market is who absorbs the work. Boutique, founder-led PR has been shrinking for years as holding-group agencies consolidate billings and offer clients integrated buying across PR, paid media and influencer in a single contract. Jacenko's model, built around a single founder's relationships and taste, does not translate easily to a group structure, and no single boutique successor has yet emerged to replace what she built.
The timeline from ABN registration on 2 April 2004 to the September 2026 Instagram post covers 22 years, two agencies, one talent management transfer, and a number-plate auction that cleared more than the median Sydney apartment deposit.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What happened to Sweaty Betty PR?
Who now runs The Ministry of Talent?
What did Roxy Jacenko sell before leaving Australia?
Does Jacenko still have any active businesses?
Xaviery Malinao writes for Prompt the Market on how brands and agencies are adapting to answer engines, drawing on Bushnote's work with clients across search, AI search and content.
