Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters has been crowned Miss Universe 2017.
Nel-Peters beat out first runner-up Miss Colombia Laura Gonzalez and second runner-up Miss Jamaica Davina Bennett for the crown Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Nel-Peters, 22, recently earned her degree in business management at North-West University.
During a pre-taped interview, the Western Cape native talked about how her experience being held at gunpoint made her passionate about training women in self-defense.
She plans to bring that passion, along with a self-defense program she helped develop, to the Miss Universe platform.
During the competition’s question-answer portion, the newly crowned Miss Universe was asked about the most important issue she thought was facing women in the workplace.