Broken beauty pageant records.
A lightning-fast romance and engagement.
A near-death experience at a traffic stop.
There’s more to former Miss Universe Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters than just her famous
football husband.
Keep watching for the details.
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters is way more than just a beauty pageant winner.
As it turns out, she has excelled in most areas of her life, starting at an early age.
According to Nel-Peters' official pageant biography, she made history at her high school
by "holding two leadership positions."
Those positions turned out to be the President of the Student Council for her school and
her boarding house.
Not only that, but Nel-Peters was also the Junior Deputy Mayor of the city George.
George is located in the Western Cape of South Africa, and Nel-Peter's became its Deputy
Mayor at the impressively young age of 17.
She continued to excel in life when she attended North-West University, where she graduated
with a degree in business management.
In the future, she may even take her education one step further.
Nel-Peters told City Press in 2018,
"I definitely plan to do my MBA in business management later and hope to have my own business
one day.
Entrepreneurship is in our blood."
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters first made a splash on the beauty pageant circuit when she competed
for the title of Miss South Africa in 2017.
There's no doubt she stunned the judges with her flawless beauty, but it was her answers
during the question session that really made her shine on stage.
During the pageant, Nel-Peters was asked to describe the greatest fear she had to overcome,
and she answered with refreshing candor.
"The fear of fear itself."
"We forget that everything we need to achieve greatness is already inside of us."
After a combination of the judges' input and a tally of a portion of votes received from
the public via text message, she was victorious.
As the new Miss South Africa, Nel-Peters was chosen to uphold the "ideals" of the modern
South African woman, while also helping to empower women, protect children, and "be a
responsible representative of all South Africans."
When Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters represented South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant, Times
Live reported she was a favorite going into the competition.
And she clearly amazed everyone — not only by her poise and beauty — but also by how
she owned the Q&A session with her "brilliant answers," as HuffPost ZA wrote.
When asked to name the biggest issue that women around the world face, the crowd and
judges were floored when she answered,
"Women earn 75% of what men earn doing the same thing.
I believe in equal pay for equal work."
Though the other contestants had their strong points as well, when it came time to crown
the queen, Nel-Peters was the clear winner.
"Becoming Miss Universe was an absolute life-changing whirlwind."
Her win also set an astonishing record, as Nel-Peters was just the second South African
to win the Miss Universe pageant.
Margaret Gardiner took home the crown in 1978.
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters' parents divorced when she was really young, and both her mother
and father have since remarried.
Fortunately, she gets along well with the new additions to her family, and she is always
ecstatic to have them join her during the most important moments of her life.
She also had a half-sister, Franje, through her father, Bennie Peters, and his new wife.
Nel-Peters celebrated Franje's 12th birthday in February 2018, and she called her younger
sister her "absolute biggest inspiration" in an Instagram post.
Sadly, Franje was born "without a cerebellum" and therefore completely disabled, as Nel-Peters
told Miss Universe.
She had also described Franje as her "biggest motivator," saying,
"Her situation makes me realize how special life is and I always want to work twice as
hard, enjoy life twice as much so that I can enjoy it for her as well.
Therefore each experience I encounter is that much more special."
Sadly, Franje tragically died at the age of 13 in May 2019.
At the time, Nel-Peters shared in part on Instagram,
"Our hearts are aching beyond measure but I am grateful knowing she's forever relieved
of the pain she experienced on earth."
It was Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters' sister, Franje Peters, who actually brought Tim Tebow and
Nel-Peters together.
Tebow knew that Nel-Peters' sister has special needs, as he told the Today show, and the
sports star thought it would be a great idea to invite the beauty queen and her family
to his Night to Shine charity event in 2018.
As part of the athlete's Tim Tebow Foundation, Night to Shine gives people with special needs
ages 14 and older an extravagant prom night they'll never forget.
With help from hundreds of churches from across the globe, the Tim Tebow Foundation hosts
annual events in various locations, and, on one particular night, a function took place
in Nel-Peters' native South Africa that Nel-Peters' little sister attended.
From that night on, as Nel-Peters told a radio host, she and Tebow "started talking" and
never really stopped.
In 2016, Tim Tebow revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he was looking for an attractive
partner who shared his beliefs.
He apparently found all that and more when he met Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters in 2018.
By January 2019, he and the South African stunner were engaged.
According to People, Tebow invited Nel-Peters to his family's farm near Jacksonville, Florida
under the guise of a belated family Christmas dinner.
Tebow reportedly wasn't nervous about proposing at all, but he wanted to make sure Nel-Peters
wouldn't "sense his excitement."
So he told her he would be surprising his father with a brand new truck and even went
so far as to borrow a vehicle from a dealership to cover his tracks.
Tebow and Nel-Peters took a walk towards a lake and paused by a bench that was engraved
with the date of the very first day they met.
That's when he got down on one knee and presented her with a 7.25-carat diamond ring.
Singer Matthew Mole then serenaded them with their favorite song, "The Wedding Song."
Making the occasion even more special to the couple was the fact that Tebow had flown in
Nel-Peters' closest family members and friends from South Africa.
According to People, Tebow's family and friends were also in attendance.
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters had an amazing year as Miss Universe, and she kicked things off
by wowing the pageant's director of talent, Esther Swann, with her maturity.
Swann joked to City Press in 2018,
"I sometimes have to remind Demi that she's 22 and can act it.
That it's sometimes okay to get a pimple."
After proudly donning the crown and sash and tending to her duties as queen of the universe,
Nel-Peters had to pass the baton to her successor, Catriona Gray, from the Philippines.
Nel-Peters told Page Six around that time:
"[I'm] saying goodbye to one part of my life and also getting excited for next year."
Nel-Peters had a lot on her plate prior to becoming Miss Universe, but giving up her
throne didn't mean her schedule would slow down.
For instance, Nel-Peters works with a company that delivers healthy meals to people with
serious illnesses.
The beauty queen told Page Six:
"I've been working with God's Love We Deliver since I started my reign as Miss Universe.
I've just grown to love the organization so much, and it's amazing what they do."
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters was on her way to an event in her native South Africa when she
stopped her car at a red light and was immediately surrounded by five men.
While appearing on Hollywood Life's podcast, Nel-Peters explained:
"Three of them were armed and nearly pointed the gun towards my head."
With her car stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and with nowhere to go, she remembered some
key advice from a Women Empowered self-defense course she had taken, which was to surrender.
Though one man wanted her to leave with her attackers still in the car, Nel-Peters was
able to escape, attacking the man and fleeing.
As Nel-Peters recalled on the podcast:
"I punched the guy in the throat.
I managed to get back up on my feet and I pumped him in the throat and it gave me [a]
window of opportunity to run away."
"I ran off.
And, can I say this, in six-inch heels, ladies."
After running through traffic and pleading to other drivers for help, a young woman about
the same age as Nel-Peters came to the rescue and gave the beauty queen a ride.
Nel-Peters admitted to being very shaken up after the terrifying incident, but she revealed
that the assailants didn't get away with the crime.
Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters and Tim Tebow have turned their pets into social media stars by introducing
Instagram to The Tebow Pack, which includes their Bernese mountain dog, Chunk, a golden
retriever named Kobe, and Paris the dalmatian.
Nel-Peters told ET in 2021,
"We're definitely biased, but it's sweet to see how much joy they're able to bring through
social media.
But it just kind of happened.
[...] They each have such unique personalities and that's what we try to embrace about them."
The couple also collaborated with a pet food brand to raise money for animal shelters,
as they shared with the New York Post.
Nel-Peters told the outlet:
"We want to shine a light on the support and companionship pets bring us.
[...] The partnership was built on the idea that our pets are an essential part of our
family."
When Tim Tebow and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters started to plan their wedding, the couple knew it
would take place in South Africa, the bride's home country.
People reported that the January 2020 ceremony took place at sunset in Cape Town.
Nel-Peters told the outlet:
"We wanted to look back at the wedding and see that it was intimate, elegant, and traditional.
We want to remember this day for the rest of our lives."
Tebow, a self-confessed romantic, explained to People that he had been, quote, "waiting
for the right person to come along" his entire life.
The former NFL player went on to add:
"All of my dreams have come true.
It was 100 percent worth the wait."
Reflecting on their wedding ceremony, Nel-Peters told The Knot:
"Very few things will beat the moment I saw Tim's face for the first time as I walked
down the aisle.
[Second to that] was getting to say 'I do' as we made a promise to forever."
Although they're married now, the romance between Tim Tebow and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters
hasn't died.
As she told ET, the NFL player celebrated their first year together with a beach getaway
and a flowery surprise.
Nel-Peters recalled:
"The night before our one-year anniversary, Tim gave me the most beautiful bunch of flowers.
Twelve roses and one peony, my favorite flower.
He said that it was a rose for each month we have been married, and one peony representing
one of me, who he loves."
The former Miss Universe gushed that she felt "so loved" after the "beautiful" gift, but
the celebrations didn't end there.
Nel-Peters added:
"The next morning, when I woke up and came downstairs to make a cup of coffee, there
was a bunch of 365 roses.
They represented each day of marriage — the good ones, the great ones, the trial ones,
the unexpected days, just all of them."
After Tim Tebow and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters tied the knot, it didn't take long for people
to start asking whether they were going to have kids.
And as they told ET, they've already talked about the subject.
Nel-Peters said:
"I think it's certainly a heart's desire for both of us.
And God willing, we would love to have a family someday, one day."
The NFL star agreed that he would be excited about having a child.
"Someday that would be an awesome blessing that we would love."
In a 2020 interview with Extra, he compared their approach to a football play.
"I don't know if we're running the four-minute offense or we're playing defense."
Tebow also revealed that the couple has had lengthy talks about what their next stage
would be, telling Extra:
"We've talked about [it], we're trying to figure out what's next for us.
[...] It's something that we both definitely want, and are excited for when I think it's
just the right time, which, you know, hopefully, we'll both know when that is."
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