The mother of convicted rapist Tom Silvagni may be forced to step away from her role as the face of Chemist Warehouse as public fury grows over her son’s crimes.
Jo Silvagni’s TV future is unclear after her youngest son, Tom, was convicted of two counts of rape following a two-week trial in Melbourne’s Victorian County Court.
The mother of three and wife of two-time Carlton premiership great Stephen Silvagni had her name kept out of the headlines for more than a year due to a non-publication order obtained by her son.
It appears her professional brand association as a health ambassador for Chemist Warehouse may hang in the balance after the conglomerate began deleting promotional videos featuring her.
Chemist Warehouse refused to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
As recently as Thursday, a video featuring Ms Silvagni was deleted from the company’s infomercial House of Wellness Facebook page.
It featured the former game show hostess giggling about receiving a car from her husband one Christmas and describing the family’s massive festive celebrations each December.
In the now-deleted video, Ms Silvagni sings Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You and reveals that ‘the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received is actually a brand new car (from) my husband’ while the couple were building their three-storey Melbourne mansion.
Jo Silvagni has been the face of Chemist Warehouse for more than a decade
The well-known TV presenter supported her youngest son Tom during his recent rape trial
Backlash against Ms Silvagni has also broken out online, where angry Aussies, many of them women, have declared they will be boycotting Chemist Warehouse and ‘shopping elsewhere’ until the association ends.
While Ms Silvagni was not convicted of any crime and bears no responsibility for her son’s criminal actions, the family’s claims of Tom’s innocence and their intention to appeal did not sit well with some Australians.
Ms Silvagni sobbed in the courtroom as the guilty verdict against her son was handed down.
Just as the woman finished her powerful statement to the court, the mother appeared to stare at her son’s rape victim.
Walking to the front of the court and taking a seat about two metres away from the young woman, Ms Silvagni stared at her.
She was caught on camera lashing out at a TV reporter after her son Tom had just been jailed for six years and two months, with a non-parole period of three years and three months.
As she and her husband left the court, she shrugged off media questions, saying ‘go away’ and pushing one female TV reporter, saying, ‘Do your job!’
Marketing expert and PR guru Max Markson believes Ms Silvagni’s lucrative deal with the pharmacy giant can survive the current firestorm of bad publicity.
But Markson, who is Australia’s most famous publicist, said that will take time and a certain strategy.
Join the debate
Should public backlash over a family member’s crime cost someone their career and reputation?
Max Markson, Australia’s most famous publicist, says that it will take time and a certain strategy to counter the current backlash against the Silvagnis, which includes people calling for a boycott of Chemist Warehouse while it is associated with Jo Silvagni
Markson has worked with Kim Kardashian, Mike Tyson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and has promoted everyone from world leaders to Australian celebrities and sporting stars.
‘My advice to both Jo Silvagni and Chemist Warehouse may be best to not use her for the next three months,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Take her down over Christmas until everything calms down, and then put her back on air after the next three months and use her again.
‘She’s a fantastic talent, good, strong and the public love her. The people against her online are only the naysayers, that’s what they do.
‘Both can recover from it. It’s a sad story.’
Ms Silvagni first appeared on TV between 1991 and 1993 as a spokesmodel alongside Glenn Ridge on Sale of the Century, and later co-hosted Channel Nine’s lifestyle program Looking Good.
She also fronted TV ads for Zoot Review, speaking to Australian celebrities who spruiked products such as Cold Power, Ski yoghurt and Nurofen.
Her son had repeatedly denied that he digitally raped his friend’s girlfriend at the Silvagni family home in the early hours of January 14, 2024.
Chemist Warehouse refused to comment on its future relationship with Jo Silvagni
The jury was told the woman had consensual sex with her boyfriend at the house, but that he organised an Uber and left the property shortly before 2am.
Silvagni then lied, telling the woman her boyfriend would be returning upstairs because his Uber had been cancelled.
But it was Silvagni who went into the dark bedroom a short time later and pretended to be the woman’s boyfriend before digitally raping her twice.
In the days after, he doctored an Uber receipt to make it look like the victim’s boyfriend had left the house after 2.30am.
Silvagni admitted forging the receipt but said he did so because he panicked after being falsely accused of rape.
The jury rejected his account, finding him guilty of two counts of rape.
He was jailed for six years.
His family has vowed to appeal his conviction.
‘Jo and I, together with our family members and friends, are so disappointed with the outcome,’ Stephen Silvagni said before breaking down in tears.
With his wife’s arm around him, he continued to question the credibility of the victim.
‘We all love and support our son Tom. Our son continues to maintain his innocence and we stand firmly behind him,’ he said.
‘We will be considering our options to appeal and shall not be making any further comments on this case. Our goal is to clear his name and bring him home.’
