Our Darling Demi

Proud dad and stepmom of the new Miss Universe share family pics and memories.

- Shanaaz Prince

IT’S the first thing that catches your eye as you walk into the lounge of the Peters’ home in Potchefstroom: a huge framed black-and-white picture of Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters taken when she was 13. With her long brown hair blowing in the wind and a big smile on her face, she looks radiant – hardly surprising that just nine years later she was crowned the most beautiful woman in the universe.

These days her father, Bennie Peters, and stepmother, Elzabé, have to draw comfort from this photo and others because they don’t know when they’ll see her again. Straight after her Miss Universe victory Demi (22) was whisked away to New York, her home for the duration of her reign. But as she embarks on her exciting new journey her loved ones will never be far from her thoughts, she promises.

There’ll be one family member in particular she’ll miss desperately: her little sister, Franje. Born with the rare condition subtotal cerebellar agenesis, Franje (11) doesn’t have a cerebellum, the vital part of the brain at the back of the head that connects to the spinal cord. She has the mental capacity of a three-month-old baby, can’t walk, talk or eat and is fed through a feeding tube.

The pregnancy had been completely normal so the Peterses were devastated when Franje was diagnosed with the condition at four months old. Elzabé (43) can still vividly recall the day they heard the news. “I can still remember us driving in the car and her [Demi] saying, ‘I don’t understand why these things happen, but I’ll just love her,’” Elzabé says.

She believes it made Demi, then 11, more determined to live life to the fullest.