Armed Men Tried To Kidnap Me | Demi-Leigh Tebow

Demi Leebo was consumed with winning Miss South Africa and in 2017 her dreams came true when she was crowned not only Miss South Africa but also Miss Universe but little did she know that when she crowned her successor it would feel like the rug was ripped out from under her when demy Lee Nell Peters was crowned Miss Universe 2017 she became internationally known when she was given the title Mrs Tim tibo in 2020 she became the Envy of young women across America it's easy to look at this beauty queen speaker and Champion for needy children and think her life is a fairy tale yet she's candid about her struggles misplaced identity the painful loss of her sister even a narrow escape from carjackers who tried to kidnap her with her new book a crown that lasts Demi Lee offers an insightful look at true identity versus whatever labels one has all right y'all I am beyond excited to say that Demi leeo is here on 700 Club interactive Demi thank you so much for being with us today thanks for having me Ashley so fun to be here I'm so excited that you're here it's awesome all right we let's go back a little bit let's go back to 2017 it was a pretty big year for you you were crowned uh Miss South Africa and Miss Universe like talk about that Journey it was man it was such a whirlwind year it was a year that I had worked for for so long I gave up speaking my first language of Recons to prepare to speak English on an international stage I walked in high heels for way too many hours in the day okay way too many hours um but essentially you know you work so hard for that one thing that degree that role that prize that corner office whatever that is um you know to each individual and then a moment comes where you have to give back or maybe it didn't end up working out or that dream didn't end up realizing like you had hoped and you're left feeling well what now and what do I show up for when everything I've I've worked for and showed up for the last however many years is no longer there and giving back that title was that moment for me yeah well how did first off how did you even get into pageants like what was what was life like before Miss South Africa and Miss Universe I grew up um about 4 hours outside of cavetown in a team Tiny Town Called Sedgefield the area is nicknamed The Garden Route of South Africa and it really looks like you're just driving through one big luscious Garden we have one traffic light um that's situated on the interstate and if you swerve out for the chicken you miss the whole whole city the whole whole town not even a city at all um you know my mom and I like would buy groceries on weekends on the farmers market so going from that to then a big city like New York City after I won Miss Universe was definitely a culture shock definitely a lot to adapt to definitely a lot of new things but it was fun I've always loved traveling and love seeing the world yeah absolutely well obviously yeah you talk about how that moment what that moment was like for you when you hand your crown to somebody else and you talk about it in the book like literally no one told you what to do it's just like boom you're not Miss Universe anymore I guess talk a little bit deeper into what that experience was like for you maybe a couple months even a couple years after all that you you have a whole team of people with you the whole year and then you hand that crown back to that very rightful next winner super deserving um but you're going off stage and you're literally in an instant as quickly as I gained that Crown that's as quickly as I had to give it back and I remember trying to find my way just to my dressing room backstage I didn't you know I had this whole team of people escorting me being with me helping me showing me the way to now oh I'm I'm on my own here and I think that was probably a moment that I felt like I had to rely on my self-confidence a lot um and actually that that failed me it failed me so bad because self-confidence when you look at the word confidence just means to have full trust and I tried to have full trust in one of my most vulnerable moments in my life on myself and that totally failed me and I realized that I was I needed something deeper I needed something that was Trust worthy that was fixed that wasn't going to disappear like my crown that is bigger than myself um and essentially I had to really dig deep and realize that my true identity is rooted in my faith and who my maker says I am well let's talk about your faith I mean did you grow up in a Christian home yeah I did my parents were divorced separated when I was really young but uh they they both grew up Christian and they both got remarried and so I grew up in two different Christian households um from young age but you know as it wasn't until I was about 17 years old that I realized I had maybe a lot of confusion growing up in two different households and maybe not fully understanding theology that I had kind of Taken bits and pieces from all over the country in a sense where I realized I know Jesus and I love him but I don't know if I have a personal relationship with him and I had a lot of doubt in my mind and we had a very tragic situation where a a very dear friend of ours tragically passed away at the end of our 11th grade and our whole grade uh or School gathered on the sports field to pray with our youth pastor and to pray over his life and his family and afterwards the youth pastor gave an opportunity for anyone that had doubts and that was me um I felt like he gave that opportunity just for me he didn't know that and I realized you know what dami for I don't want to doubt any longer where I'm going to spend eternity and put up my hand and I prayed with our youth youth pastor and that was the best decision I could have ever ever made in my life so beautiful I absolutely love that well I wanted to ask you like why do you think so many of us men women young old I mean it's not just the younger generation it's all of us right so many of us put our identity in our accomplishments and that just I feel sets us up for failure does you know talk about that why do you think we do that it's easy it's accessive it's harder to go and find the root of our identity than to just uproot a little weed it's it's easier to uproot a little weed than to go and untangle all those you know deep rooted Tangled roots of our identity I think it's probably just easier our life experiences our circumstances our accolades our prizes all form part of our identity you know and it's easy when it's surface level it's easy to put our identity in things that are that are uh tangible in a sense that's true that's so true and you you kind of touched on it a little bit but you break the book up into four different parts dig plant grow flourish talk about why you decided to kind of divide the book that way I my biggest dream for this book is for it to be applicable to my readers um to their personal stories and their personal lives um broke this book up into four sections dig PL G and florish and after each section I give my readers an opportunity to go and apply what they've read into their own lives and that was something that was very important to me I wish I could tell you I use that an analogy because I'm I've got a green thumb I'm just a very practical person you know when you think of digging it's messy it's untangling those roots planting new new seeds of Truth um in our lives to essentially give that time to grow in that growing phase we still have to prune the plant we still have to give it water we still have to put in some and then when you think of the flourishing phase you know there's still work that gets to be done or that that needs to be done in the flourishing phase regardless um but mainly I want this book to be applicable to my readers I love that and it's such a beautiful depiction I really I mean God is also seen as the great Gardener yes right in our hearts you know he talks about soil so I just I love it I I love the analogy but you talk about something pretty significant that happened in 2017 um again that year was just major for you in many different ways you talk about in the section of grow in your book where you literally were carjacked but you could have also I mean if if things didn't happen the way they you could have easily been sold into human trafficking talk about that moment um that happened CU it's pretty crazy yeah ashy I till this day I don't know what my perpetrator's goal was I don't know you know what their intent was the only thing I know is it wasn't good yeah um I have a whole chapter where I actually write about that situation in great detail um but long story short I was surrounded by multiple armed men and tried to run away but was told get back in the vehicle you're going with us um and that incident was very traumatic was awful the most um horrific part of that story was having nobody that would help me having nobody that would stop having nobody that would even listen or lend the ear you know it was peak hour traffic broad Deadlight people could hear what I was saying and nobody would stop w eventually a a young girl she was 19 years old stopped and laid me into her car laid me to saf this old little beat up little car but she used what she had right there where she was at to to lend helping hand to someone and I really think that she has changed such a big part of the trajectory of my life and have inspired me to be that girl for women around the world yes and you totally have it and I just have to say girl first off you were running in sixin heels and then secondly right secondly you punch the guy in the throat so hard that's eventually what let him let you go um in a dramatic situation when you know it's so hard to know what to do in a situation like that my dad had sent me on numerous safety driving courses woman empowerment self-defense courses and in that moment I remember two things I mean I learned so many self-defense techniques throughout my life but in that moment I remember two things one don't ever go to the second destination because whatever is gonna happen right here in this studio is not going to get better somewhere downtown in some dark alley and the second thing what one I tried fleeing that didn't work so fight flight or freeze freezing wasn't an option for me I wanted to get out of there and I realized my only option I had left was to fight my way out of it and I did the only thing I knew how in that moment to buy me a window of opportunity to get away and and thankfully I did girl I have to give you your flowers and your Kudos I mean that truly was so courageous of you and I know that you also did the unbreakable conferences and you just continue to be such a light for so many women we could literally talk for hours but the last question I wanted to talk about is obviously you and your husband you guys have you guys are just amazing people doing amazing things how have you guys both been able to just combine you know your passions and your purposes yeah I love that you cuz I love talking about him it's one of my favorite humans in the whole white World um you know I I'm so thankful for the way that Tim and I have been brought together you know there's so many ways that our lives have been aligned before we ever even met in person uh my little sister um that was born with severe special needs and disabilities she was our little Matchmaker through some of the work that the that the tempo Foundation does with night to shine it's a worldwide celebration for people just like my little sister we have them in every state all around the country our favorite night of the year so when I first met him funny story I had never heard his name but I had heard of night to shine before so I justar yeah I just knew Tim as the night to shine guy you know not the football player no and I just got to know him and most importantly the love that he has for Jesus and the love that he has for people especially people just like my sister and today with the with in collaboration with the T Foundation we get to fight um for people all around the world and deepest darkest hour of need and hope for bring some faith hope and love to them yes I love it oh my gosh Demi thank you so much for being here today and thank you so much for this book it's so good like you talk about so many different things and I just know it's going to help a lot of women so thank you God bless you that's my prayer yes appreciate it all right everyone well Demi leebo's book is called a crown that lasts and it's available wherever books are sold and we will be back with more of 700 Club interactive right after this