Miss Universe Demi Leigh Mother speaks on her return to SA

Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters’s number one fan‚ cheerleader and a woman who has known her throughout her life‚ Anna-Marie Steenkamp‚ will be in the crowd who will welcoming the recently crowned Miss Universe back to her home soil.

Steenkamp‚ 57‚ last saw her only child in November when she became the first Miss South Africa to take this prestigious title since Margaret Gardiner in 1978. At the time‚ she‚ together with her ex-husband Bennie Peters‚ his wife‚ Elsabe‚ and stepfather Johan had only an hour to congratulate their daughter who had just taken over the R3.5-million diamond crown – with 500 diamonds of roughly 30 carats each – as Miss Universe in Las Vegas in America.

Then she was whisked off to her Miss Universe apartment in New York.

“I think I will cry when I see her. I miss her terribly‚ you know. She will always be my baby and I often wonder how she’s adjusting in a foreign country‚” said Steenkamp a few days before she took a flight to Johannesburg.

The mother and daughter communicate with each other daily on WhatsApp‚ but said her daughter often didn’t have time to elaborate on what she has been up to or to share her experience of the countries she has visited as Miss Universe.

“Arg! I know and understand that she’s busy. But I hope that now that she’s coming home‚ I will have enough time to talk about her crowning and really spend time as family. I’m praying that the organisers give us that chance.

“In Las Vegas I only took three pictures with her after the crowning. I am hoping to take a lot when she’s here‚” said the business woman from Sedgefield‚ a small town on the Garden Route in the Western Cape.