Wednesday 29 June 2022 11:39 PM Roxy Jacenko breaks her silence after being branded 'cruel' for elephant ride trends now

Roxy Jacenko has broken her silence after being branded cruel for letting her daughter and son ride elephants at a beach in Thailand.

The celebrity publicist, 42, who is currently holidaying in Phuket with Pixie, 10, and Hunter, 8, was accused of supporting Thailand's notoriously cruel elephant entertainment industry. 

But the star has claimed she had 'no idea' she had done anything wrong until the backlash - and has since removed the post.

'I am genuinely shocked - I had NO idea, if I did, I obviously wouldn't have participated and educated the children on the topic as to why they couldn't take part,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday evening. 

'This is our first trip to Phuket, and it's been a remarkable experience overall, when we saw the two elephants on the beach, adjacent to where we are staying, the kids were overjoyed - having never had an experience to get so close to such a remarkable animal and being genuine animal lovers.

Roxy went on to add that she saw the comments, read up on the subject and subsequently removed the images swiftly from her social media.

'I have removed the posts and am now very aware why it would have caused upset which was unintentional,' Roxy closed her statement.

Earlier in the day, Roxy's followers were left infuriated after she captioned the video of her kids riding elephants, 'What an amazing experience'.

'Amazing? This is cruel and should be banned!' one commented.  

'Please do not promote elephant tourism. They need to be protected, not used for our entertainment. The kids will gain much more by being educated about this', another wrote.