Former Miss Nigeria and Miss World Agbani Darego, today, marked the 17th anniversary of her reign as a beauty quen.
Agbani, who is now married to Ishaya Danjuma welcomed a baby boy in September.
Agbani who has lived a quiet life while running her fashion label took to Instagram to share a video of how she won and activities that followed.
How a mother, Agbani has described motherhood as a fairytale and is thankful for the blessings.
Years after winning after the coveted Miss World crown, she remains beautiful like a gazelle, with little or no additional flesh on her slim frame. But if you ask her how she has managed to hold unto her original weight at the same time some women of her age are struggling with weight problem.
Here she shares her story with Kemiashefonlivehaven
:
What is the experience of being born into a family of eight?
It is a wonderful experience. I am the sixth in the family and one of the babies. Sometimes that is not so good because everyone before you thinks they know what is right for you, but I do love my family, we are one close unit and I know that I can always go back home when I need any support from them.
Tell us about your growing up generally, how was it?
I grew up with three brothers and five sisters and it was always a full house, there was no quiet moment in the house, we had our good laughs, fights and make ups like any other normal family. I had a comfortable life, I lost my father in 2012 but while he lived he made sure that we as his kids did not lack for anything. He instilled great values in us and I hope he is happy with me today with what I have been able to do with my life.
And he was conservative, how did you break through his restrictions?
He was a conservative but at the same time he was also a realistic person. He was my best friend.
At what point did he come to accept that you should be a model?
He has always supported me, the only question was do I want you to do this? But once he said, okay, I give you my blessing to go ahead and do it, from that moment on, I had his support. Any questions or issues I had, I could go back home and call him and speak to him. My family is notoriously close knit family. After we lost my mom, dad was everything to us. He was one of the kids, we made jokes with him, we laughed and played with him.
What challenges did you encounter when you started off in modelling?
MBGN was my first major pageant; I took place in one or two pageants in secondary school before, I did not win them but I placed well. After winning MBGN, I went unto to the Miss Universe pageant, I did not win that but I placed top 10.
You also did not win Mnet Face of Africa
I went for the casting for the Mnet Face of Africa, I did not make it to the competition, I got cut off before the competition but that was where I actually ran into the pageant manager for MBGN and she convinced me to go for the pageant .
How did it feel to be cut off from the list of finalists?
It was not anything, it was probably one of my first time of going for something so big and on an International scale and I am happy enough that I made it to the stage that I did. I also think that it was a blessing in disguise. It was because I did not go on to compete in that show that I went on to compete in MBGN and because I went on to compete in MBGN, I went on to win Miss World. God has always been faithful to me and I see His hands in everything that happens to me. I think God’s guidance led me to where I went and where I am at the moment.
Did you at any point get discouraged especially when you did not win in some of the pageants you took part in?
I can’t say that because I was fortunate in most of the competitions that I took part in. The only competition that I did not go on to compete in was Face of Africa; everything else that I tried my hands on was successful. We have to work hard and pursue what we want to do and what I believe is that it will be silly of me or anybody to say they want to give up. For example, my clothing line, I first released my promotional pictures a few months ago and I had hoped to open the place a month or two after. However, I had some issues with my production team, I could have given up but I did not, I persevered and I spoke to them and we figured something together that works best. Now we actually have a better production line because of that issue that we had. Anything in your mind, if you don’t give up, if you believe and work hard for it, you will achieve.
Tell us about working with Naomi Campbell
That was about 17 years ago, Naomi picked me to be part of the charity ball she was doing and that was a good experience for me, same thing with Trump agency whom I had the opportunity of working with when I participated in Miss Universe pageant. They wanted me to come to New York and sign up as their model but before I could do that, I went on to win Miss World.
