Former Miss World, Agbani Darego, Celebrates Her 36th Birthday

Agbani Darego Turns 36 Today!

Agbani Darego, MFR
(born Agbani Asenite Darego, 22 December 1982) is a Nigerian model and
beauty queen who was crowned Miss World 2001. she is best known as the
first native African to win Miss World.

Early life

Darego’s
family roots are in Abonnema, Rivers State. She was born in Lagos to a
family of eight children and she was sixth out of them. At age two, her
family relocated to Port Harcourt and was raised in D-line. Darego
attended Bereton Montessori Nursery and Primary School. At ten, she was
sent to a boarding school in a bid to shield her from her mother who had
become very ill with breast cancer. Her mother was known as Inaewo and
had a rice trading business and a clothing boutique. Darego’s mother
died two years later after her departure to boarding school. Darego has
spoken of how the loss prepared her for the future. As a teenager,
Darego longed to be a model, and despite her conservative father’s
wishes, she auditioned for the M-Net Face of Africa modelling
competition, but was not chosen as a finalist. After finishing her
secondary education, she attended University of Port Harcourt where she
studied Computer Science and Mathematics.

Pageantry

In
2001, Darego was crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria. Contrary to
popular belief, Darego did not replace Valerie Peterside after the
latter was dethroned as she had competed in rival pageant Miss Nigeria. A
few months later she was a contestant at Miss Universe, and became the
first Nigerian to place among the top 10 semi-finalists, finishing
seventh overall. She was the only contestant to wear a modest maillot as
opposed to a revealing bikini during the swimsuit competition.

In
November that year, she became the first native African to claim the
Miss World title (Although past winners such as Penelope Coelen and
Anneline Kriel are South African, they are of European descent, and
Antigone Costanda, who represented Egypt in 1954 is of Greek heritage).
Darego’s victory was widely welcomed in her home country, and her
one-year tenure included goodwill trips and scheduled appearances on
behalf of the pageant, and a national honour of MFR.

Personal life

Due
to her busy work schedule, Darego left the University of Port Harcourt,
but after moving to New York where she was signed to Next Model
Management and Ford Models, she enrolled with New York University where
she studied Psychology, graduating in May 2012. In April 2017, Darego
married her longtime love Ishaya Danjuma, son of Billionaire General
Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma in a ceremony held in Marrakesh.