Blonde Ambition

by Annette Sharp

  When at last they climbed out of the car and came inside, they would retreat once more to her office for another long and emotional counselling session.

  Within weeks of the yacht club punch-up, the newspapers would record Roxy had a new best friend. She was champagne marketing and communications consultant Sophie Curtis. Many couldn’t see what Sophie and Roxy had in common, other than their work. Later it emerged Sophie had a jetsetting younger brother, Oliver.

  Oliver Curtis was twenty-four when he met Roxy. He was younger than her by five years and engaged to be married. His fiancée was his girlfriend of five years—‘childhood sweethearts’ some called them—Hermione Underwood.

  Hermione was, at that time, something of a minor celebrity thanks to her friendship with Lara Bingle, then engaged to cricketer Michael Clarke. Bingle’s relationship with Clarke unravelled spectacularly in March 2010—the cricketer made the evening news after taking ‘compassionate leave’ to fly home from a New Zealand cricket tour to end the relationship with Bingle before flying back across the Pacific to resume the tour. Hermione was propelled into the spotlight as Bingle’s friend-in-a-shiny-black-Mercedes who would frequently dash to her side when Bingle needed to flee ever-present paparazzi.

  After moving out of the Bondi beachfront apartment she had shared with Clarke, Bingle would move in, up the road, with Hermione and Curtis. The apartment was the same one Curtis had once shared with his insider trading partner John Hartman, before their bitter falling out.

  Roxy’s deepening friendship with Sophie—the daughter of a multi-millionaire—came as no surprise to Roxy’s associates. ‘Roxy valued money and pedigree in a friend. It was nothing new to see Roxy throw her energies into making another rich friend. It was normal behaviour,’ said one young friend who watched the new romance unfold.

  Thanks to her new closeness to Sophie, Roxy would soon befriend bride-to-be Hermione, who was still on a high after her boyfriend, Curtis, proposed to her during a romantic holiday at Italy’s Lake Como in the European summer of 2009—immediately after a Supreme Court–ordered travel ban relating to his insider trading charges lapsed on 28 July. Roxy and Hermione would become new best buds and Hermione would find herself discussing her wedding plans with Roxy, a woman known to have excellent and expensive taste in clothing, cars, property and men. The pair were only a few months into their friendship when Hermione invited Roxy to attend a PR event with her at the Woollahra Hotel. One guest would recall:

  There was a dinner at the Woollahra Hotel. They took a table. It was for a charity. It was Hermione’s event. Roxy went as Hermione’s guest. Sophie went as well and so did Oliver. Roxy arrived a bit later than the rest and she just walked in and took a seat between Hermione and Oliver. Oliver probably didn’t know what hit him.

  At the end of the night, weary after organising the event, Hermione would head home after dinner, leaving Roxy and Oliver to party with friends.

  Oliver would recount what happened next in his toast to his bride at their March 2012 wedding. Painting a picture of himself as the architect of their union, the groom told wedding guests he left his jacket in Roxy’s car the night of the charity event knowing it would provide him with an opportunity to retrieve it the next day. Roxy would have to see him a second time, he said, with a mischievous smile. Except she didn’t, because the efficient Roxy had promptly couriered it back to him.

  Hermione would confide to friends that within twenty-four hours of their night at the Woollahra Hotel, her relationship with Curtis was over. She had been replaced that quickly.

  ‘It devastated Hermione. Oli had been her first love. They had moved in together one week after she finished high school,’ a family friend said. ‘The wedding was called off and the whole Curtis family was kind of in shock. They loved Hermione. They still do.’

  As Curtis was flush with the excitement of a new love affair in the winter of 2010, John Hartman, was preparing for his forthcoming insider trading trial. In April 2010, Hartman had pleaded guilty to insider trading charges. Curtis must have felt like a man marking time, even though ASIC had decided in the middle of 2009 not to pursue court proceedings against him. He had lost his job at Transocean in February 2009 as a result of ASIC’s investigations. The engagement ring he bought Hermione—and told her to keep after their relationship ended—was bought with his salary earned in the employ of his father’s new business, Riverstone Advisory.

  Curtis’s father Nick would later reveal in a character reference during his son’s trial that Curtis had become ‘withdrawn’ and ‘private’ as his relationship with Hermione ended. He was, his father indicated, under great pressure. It is possible Roxy, who would say she knew nothing about Oliver’s insider trading history when they started seeing one another, was oblivious to the emotional turmoil in Oliver’s life in the early weeks of their relationship.

  For the first time in years she was enjoying a heady old-fashioned courtship with a man who was smitten and lavishing gifts upon her.

  ‘During their first couple of months together, it was crazy,’ said a former friend. ‘He was sending her hundreds of roses from Grandiflora with a note, “Miss You”. I would have to say he was totally into Roxy. It looked like love … He was in love.’

  When the first iPad was released and no-one could get their hands on one, Curtis could and acquired one for Roxy. Later the pair would slip away to Paris and Curtis would drop thousands on a Herve Leger dress when they were la nouvelle mode.

  Curtis, who a court would later hear liked life’s excesses and the odd flutter, was ready to wage the lot on Roxy. The young women who worked for Roxy were in a giddy state watching the extravagant gifts being showered on their boss. ‘You’ve really hit the jackpot with this one,’ they would tell Roxy, more than a little envious.

  But after a couple of months, Curtis’s calls became less frequent. Roxy might see him on a Friday and not hear from him until the following Tuesday. She was wondering what was diverting him, and it was irritating her.

  To cope, Roxy would do as she had done many times before. She would use her powerful social media skills and resources to see if she could locate and track her lover. Many people in Roxy’s life would share the experience of being surveilled by Roxy on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. She was brilliant at it, though sometimes, if someone hadn’t embraced social media to the extent that she had, Roxy could draw a blank. When that happened she might phone a friend and ask if they had recently seen the subject. If that then failed, she might make passing mention of it to a paparazzi photographer who could, for the heck of it and because Roxy was good to them, have a look on her behalf. This, say those who witnessed it, is exactly what happened when Curtis became inattentive a few months into their relationship.

  A friendly paparazzo took a look on Roxy’s behalf and found Oliver’s car parked at an unexpected location—outside Lara Bingle’s new apartment. Days later the newspapers were linking Curtis to Bingle—though whether it was Roxy who leaked the story or the paparazzo is unclear. What is clear is that it had the desired effect. A threefold effect, in fact.

  Firstly, Curtis went dashing back to Roxy; secondly, a media outlet got a fine gossip story tip; and thirdly, Hermione’s still-fresh break-up wounds had salt newly rubbed into them with the revelation another close friend had betrayed her with her ex-fiancé.

  It would take Roxy the best part of a month to forgive Oliver. In her free time she was rumoured to have taken a shot at Bingle’s ex, Clarke. Curtis finally managed to break the ice with a long and passionate love letter delivered to Roxy’s home. The relationship was back on, and within three months Roxy was pregnant. It was just five months after she had met Curtis.

  Roxy would do her best to spin the story of their romantic beginnings to fashionista social writer Kate Waterhouse: ‘It was publicised that we both had partners but it was actually after and nothing really happened for a good four months. People talk like it was instantaneous. If only I was so lucky that everything would happen in
stantaneously!’

  Her pregnancy, at thirty, was, she would say, unplanned. In Curtis she had snagged another ‘type two’—an investment banker, as Beau Dixon had been. As with Dixon, she had had to outmanoeuvre a rival to claim him—but claim him she did. While Roxy would say ‘Oli’ was ‘mature beyond his years’ when she met him at age twenty-four, and was ‘a nice boy, very shy’, Curtis, many believe, was in freefall in 2010 as he tried to move on quickly from the insider trading allegations that had resurfaced on 31 March when Hartman had provided his first statement to ASIC that could be used in future proceedings against Curtis. The pressure would mount in November that year when a Supreme Court judge named him as being party to Hartman’s scheme. He would be exposed in the media to the general public for the first time.

  Roxy would tell Good Weekend in 2013 Curtis was ‘the only boyfriend I’d ever had who was working the hours that I was working. He got it. I was like, “This one’s a winner.” ’

  Curtis would say: ‘She and I share similar traits as far as perfection is concerned. That was one of the attractions to each other. We both strive to achieve and achieve.’

  Those who were sympathetic towards Roxy believed she had glimpsed something in Hermione and Oliver’s relationship she craved—a loving, supportive relationship, a partner to spoil her and treat her ‘like a queen’ and a close-knit family, like the Curtis’s.

  ‘Oli and Hermione had been very much in love and in a happy bubble when Roxy discovered them,’ said a friend of Hermione. ‘It might have looked tempting if it wasn’t something you’d experienced much yourself.’

  Having asked father-of-the-bride Nick Jacenko for his daughter’s hand, on Christmas Day 2010, Curtis proposed. ‘He proposed at home after Christmas lunch with all our families,’ she said. ‘What a way to finish the year.’

  The couple celebrated with a post-Christmas trip to Hawaii and their joint admiration for that engagement rock.

  With a wedding not in their plans until 2012, and a baby eight months off, Roxy found time for a new obsession—Hermione. The fashionable Hermione had left the relationship with her engagement ring, her battered pride and an enviable collection of handbags. Generous with his money and an admirer of beautifully crafted things, Curtis had filled Hermione’s wardrobe with extravagant high-end fashion garments and handbags from European fashion houses Hermès, Chanel and Goyard.

  Roxy, now sharing her tidy Nelson Street, Woollahra home with Curtis, would soon make it her mission to emulate Hermione’s handbag collection with an impressive stockpile of her own.

  The rumour mill spun vigorously with talk Roxy had also been given Hermione’s Range Rover, though she had her own and a Porsche, and was planning an upgrade to a new Aston Martin, so would hardly need it. It didn’t take long for Roxy to start visiting Hermione’s favourite nail salon, her hairdresser and cafés. When Roxy started turning up at Indigo café in Double Bay, Hermione would head further east to Jackie’s restaurant and bar at Bondi, owned by a friend, Jackie Milijash. When Roxy soon after turned up at Jackie’s, Hermione would feel compelled to move on again.

  That Roxy had an obsessive nature was established. She admitted it openly and used to say it made her very good at her job, and it did. But socially it could also make her overbearing.

  When Hermione later opened a PR agency, Roxy approached her clients hoping to entice them to Sweaty Betty. ‘Hermione could win a client and on the day of signing they would ring her up and say they were going with Roxy because she would do it for free,’ said one of Hermione’s friends.

  Hermione would eventually move to London and start a successful travel and lifestyle blog, Hermione Olivia—shedding her surname in the process. It was precisely the route out of town paved by Roxy’s sister Ruby—a blog and a virtual name change—albeit to a very different destination, Los Angeles.

  Before she left town, Hermione, perhaps unintentionally, found a way to exact some small revenge on Roxy. Feeling compelled to smooth things over with his ex-love, Curtis—possibly at the urging of his family—bought Hermione a farewell gift, a navy BMW 3 Series car. It was a beautiful farewell gift, bought in Curtis’s name, and if Hermione was issued with a parking ticket, which happened from time to time, the tickets would sporadically end up being sent to Curtis at home where he would pay them.

  Being her mother’s daughter, frugal when circumstances demanded it, Roxy started to notice the parking tickets, registered to an unknown car, arriving in the post and asked Curtis about them. Unsatisfied by his attempt to smooth matters over, Roxy kept a watch for the car until the day arrived when she chanced upon it. It was parked at Sun Studios in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria, where Roxy was herself going for a photo shoot.

  By then, Roxy and Curtis had welcomed their daughter Pixie Rose in August 2011 and Roxy was posing for a mother and baby shoot. Driving into the Sun Studios parking lot, Roxy, accompanied by a Betty and daughter Pixie, noticed the navy BMW 3 Series in the lot. She decided to deal with the parking ticket problem once and for all.

  Hermione, as chance would have it, was chaperoning model Bingle to a photo shoot at the studio. With no occupants visible in the BMW, Roxy parked the offending car in—leaving the Betty to stand watch over the two cars. Hermione would later approach, offering an apology: ‘Excuse me I think someone has parked me in,’ she started.

  Roxy hurried out of the building asking when the fines would be paid. Then she asked: ‘What are you doing driving around in your ex’s car anyway?!’

  Despite their unconventional beginnings, Roxy and Curtis looked committed to their relationship. On 11 March 2012, they were married at Quay Restaurant at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay after the groom presented his bride with a white Ferrari. The bride arrived for the service by car and the groom, with five groomsmen, by motor yacht.

  Wedding guests were surprised to see both Roxy’s parents in attendance. The bride had recently been warring with her mother. Her estranged sister, Ruby, also arrived for the occasion. The pair hadn’t been sighted in public together in years. Nick Jacenko walked his daughter down a makeshift aisle. The bride looked radiant in a voluminous gown by Kim Kardashian’s and Victoria Beckham’s wedding gown designer of choice, Vera Wang. The gown’s estimated value was $25 000—though, guests murmoured into their canapes, another $20 000-plus should be factored on top for first-class flights to Los Angeles for two fittings and the gown’s final collection. There had also been a pre-wedding stroll down Rodeo Drive for Roxy and her maid-of-honour, Vanessa Gilbert, in search of shoes—Prada jewelled T-bars—and champagne and oysters at Beverly Hill Hotel celebrity hotspot Polo Lounge.

  The groom wore ‘a custom-made tuxedo by P. Johnson tailors. His velvet slippers were personalised with his initials—as were those of his groomsmen,’ recorded The Knot website. The bridesmaids wore black gowns by Rachel Gilbert, the fashion designer, who was also a bridesmaid. Gilbert had brought the wedding’s highest-profile guest to the ceremony, television celebrity and surfing carpenter Tom Williams. The pair had been introduced by Roxy.

  The Daily Telegraph reported the wedding, said to have cost $250 000, in its social pages: ‘Some 120 guests at the cost of around $1000 per head witnessed the lavish ceremony and reception yesterday, feasting on a kingfish sashimi entree and grain-fed beef and roasted mulloway, with five tier chocolate cake with coconut cream for dessert.’

  The Knot website reported the couple chose the venue for its ‘beautiful view overlooking the Opera House’. Bridal website Ideal Bride confirmed the couple had hired event coordinator Phillip Carr to help transform the venue with a suspended wall of white flowers and greenery. ‘Roxy worked very closely with the planner to execute her perfect day,’ The Knot reported faithfully, explaining that a planner was required because ‘both the bride and groom have such hectic work schedules’.

  The upstairs ‘Upper Tower’ section of the restaurant was transformed into the wedding ceremony area and filled with a variety of white flo
wers. The couple married standing on a personally mono-grammed white rug stamped with a large ‘R + O’. The downstairs area of the restaurant was filled with flowers of different hues—purples and reds—for the reception.

  Baby Pixie, seven months old, sat on the knee of a nanny for the ceremony. Father of the groom Nick Curtis would offer a toast largely devoted to his granddaughter, Pixie. The groom’s father would describe his daughter-in-law as ‘a force of nature’—a comment that brought some knowing smiles.

  CHAPTER 7

  Insta-mum

  Pixie will retire at five

  Roxy

  MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD had done nothing to diminish Roxy’s drive. In fact, she was working harder after these milestones presented new publicity opportunities for her personally. Interest in Sweaty Betty snowballed along with her ambitions to be the biggest and best PR agency in the country—perhaps the world. In 2011, during her pregnancy, she redesigned the office space at Sweaty Betty’s HQ to accommodate another sixteen desks and more staff, started pitching business to beauty clients and talked of going international.

  While the staffing numbers at her Beaconsfield office sat between twenty and twenty-five, the number of brands she represented was harder to ascertain. In various interviews the number was put at ‘nearly 100’, ‘over 100’ to 120 to 150. It wasn’t that she had too many clients to count, it was simply that Roxy had years earlier stopped listing her clients on the Sweaty Betty website—standard public practice among PR agencies. When asked to give a precise figure of clients, she now refused. It was a point of difference between Sweaty Betty’s website and others—it also helped her zealously guard her clients.

  Roxy, in war mode and cagey since the expansion of her business, believed naming brands or clients on her website only invited rivals to steal them: ‘People poach your brands,’ she told Business Chicks matter-of-factly in 2013 when pushed yet again to give an accurate figure and explain why she wasn’t following conventional procedure on her website. To the broader marketing community it hinted she had raised her defences.