NEW HOUSE, NEW BOOK, NEW ME!

For a long time former Miss World Rolene Strauss felt she was simply not good enough. She shows us her home and chats about learning to love herself

- MARELIZE GRBICH

SHE seemed to have the world at her feet: dropdead gorgeous with a handsome husband and a glittering career ahead of her. Yet deep down she was racked with insecurity, despite having been crowned the most beautiful woman in the world.

Rolene Strauss won the Miss World title in 2014 after taking home the Miss SA title, yet she couldn’t shake the niggling self-doubt and thought everyone was judging her.

It all started when, as a sixteen-yearold, she was told her hips were too wide to become an international model.

Rolene slimmed down from 95cm to 92cm, but the damage was done. The comment and incidents thereafter started eating away at her confidence and she worried constantly about what people thought of her.

Things came to a head when she was studying medicine at the University of the Free State in her final year.

Rolene (29) lived in Bloemfontein at the time while her husband, D’Niel Strauss, stayed in Stellenbosch. The couple had just welcomed their first child, whose name they prefer not to be revealed, and Rolene was battling to juggle it all.

She recalls hitting a low one day while nursing her son and studying at the same time. “I felt I wasn’t a good enough mom, not a good enough student and not a good enough woman,” she says.

In that moment she decided to stop trying to be perfect.

After finishing her medical degree, Rolene enrolled at Stellenbosch University’s business school to study philosophy and professional life coaching to help her reach her goal.