Agbani Darego Biography
Agbani Darego is a Nigerian model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World 2001. She was the first native African to win Miss World.
Agbani Darego Age
Agbani was born on December 22, 1982, with her real name as Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite Darego, in Abonnema in Rivers State as the sixth child out of Eight.
Agbani Darego Early Life|Education
Her father was a customs official while her mother had a rice trading business and clothing boutique, thus necessitating frequent travells.
As a little girl, Darego developed a penchant for the fashion world when she spent most of her time paging through foreign fashion magazines brought by her mother.
Education
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.
Agbani Darego
Agbani proceeded to the University of Port Harcourt after she had completed her secondary school. At the University she studied computer science.
Darego’s mother died two years later, and her daughter 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.
Agbani Darego Career|Life as A model
A year later while still at the university, her beautiful height propelled her to venture into beauty pageantry. She started with the Face of Africa modelling contest which took place in Lagos and she came out as a runner-up.
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 won Miss Nigeria.
Darego left the University of Port Harcourt due to her busy work schedule but after moving to New York where she was signed to Next Model Management and Ford Models she enrolled at New York University where she studied Psychology, graduating in May 2012.
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 one to wear a maillot as opposed to a bikini during the swimsuit competition.
Agbani DaregoPhotos
Agbani Darego Miss World 2001
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 national honour of MFR.
Darego has judged numerous pageants, and fashion and modelling competitions including Miss World 2014, Miss England 2002, Mr Scotland 2002, and Elite Model Look Nigeria 2012 and 2014.
In 2010 she launched a style and fashion reality show Stylogenic on Nigerian television, and three years later announced her denim range, AD by Agbani Darego, which includes jeans, dresses, sunglasses and bags.
She has appeared in many different print commercials for boutique chain collectables and has participated in a charity fashion show organizations organised by Naomi Campbell that took place in Barcelona, Spain.
She had also negotiated modelling deals with Donald Trump’s management to create links with modelling agencies in America. The beauty queen was signed to London and Paris branches of Next Model Management and Ford Models.
Through the next Model management, she landed a three-year contract deal with L’Oreal which made her the only second Black model to grab such deal after Venessa Williams.
She also got photographed by Annie Leibovitz, a big name in American portrait photography sphere.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1505341/bio
Agbani Darego Husband – Agbani Darego Married
Earlier, Agbani was rumoured to be dating a politician and a businessman, Timi Alaibe. Timi who hails from Bayela state went public and made it clear that he had no plans f marrying the model.
As time passed, the well-known rapper, Jude Abaga who goes by the stage name, MI, wrote a public letter to Derago stating that he desires to marry her if she permits.
The beauty queen joined the marital journey on April 8th, 2017, when she and her long-time sweetheart, Ishaya Danjuma, son of Nigeria’s former defence minister and famous business manet Theophilus Danjumba.
Their wedding took place in Marrakesh, Morocco and she shared some of their pictures while at the honeymoon.
Agbani Darego Net Worth
She founded her own fashion and reality show named Stylogenic on Nigerian television in 2010. She also has her own clothing line and collections which she opened in 2013. The line includes dresses, jeans, sunglasses and bags.
These and other endorsements have made her one of the richest models in the country. Together, all these bring her estimated net worth at $1 million.