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Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Tebow, the wife of former football star Tim Tebow, shockingly revealed this week that she had survived a near-fatal armed carjacking attempt.
Tebow explained to Fox News, while promoting her new book A Crown That Lasts, exactly what went down during that attempted carjacking and how she managed to survive it.
“Shortly after I won Miss South Africa, about three months later, I was on my way to an event as the official Miss South Africa … And I was stopped at a red traffic light. And before I could even blink, I was surrounded by five men, by multiple men, and some of them were armed.
Demi-Leigh Tebow said that because her dad forced her to go to safety driving courses and self-defense workshops, she wasn’t completely unprepared.
“In that traumatic situation, I knew not to go to the second destination, because whatever is about to happen somewhere downtown, in some dark alley with [maybe more people present] is not going to be better than right here: broad daylight, peak-hour traffic with hundreds of people around me.
“And, so, I tried to run away. I tried to get out of that vehicle. The man on my side of the vehicle grabbed me, pushed me back into the vehicle, said, ‘Get in, you’re going with us.'”
That’s when she remembered something she learned in one of those self-defense courses.
“The throat. It’s obviously lethal,” she said. “So please don’t ever try this at home. It’s absolutely just to be used in a life-threatening situation.
“But I punched him as hard as I could in his throat, and that bought me a split-second window of opportunity to run away.”
That, however, was only part of the story.
“You also tell a very personal story in the book about how you were carjacked, attempted carjacking in South Africa, and you said the most traumatic part wasn’t the guy holding the gun to your head, where you literally think you could lose your life, but you escaped and you asking people for help and nobody helped you,” Gayle King said to Demi-Leigh Tebow during an appearance on CBS Mornings this week. “Everybody rolled up their window. ‘Get out of here.’ Except one person and you say, ‘Be that girl.’ Tell us about that girl.”
“I managed to escape that situation, which was horrific, it was awful,” Tebow replied. “I ran up a big avenue, in my six-inch heels by the way, and I knocked on window after window. Nobody would stop to help me except for the this young girl.
“She was 19-years-old at the time and you know, all she had was this old little beat up car, but she said ‘Here I am, I am willing to show up for someone in need.’
“And you know the great thing that came from that? I truly believe that she changed such a big trajectory of my life because she taught me something so important. Not just to lend a helping hand, but to be willing to be used in any situation. And you know, I think so many times we can be fearful and say you know, ‘What difference can I really make?’ But look at the ripple effect of goodness that came from her saying yes.”