The road to Miss Universe hasn’t been smooth for Pia Wurtzbach, which makes her victory even sweeter, as she tells Anton San Diego

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On a cold February morning in New York, Miss Universe sits in Rue 57, a French bistro just around the corner from her apartment. Wearing a light grey sweater, an overcoat, ankle boots, and a high chignon that is fast becoming her signature look, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach seems unaware of the attention she is getting. All around our table, necks crane to take a look at the beauty queen, several admirers waiting with bated breath for the perfect opportunity to approach her.

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Not all countries take beauty pageants as seriously as the Philippines does. Year after year, Filipinos crowd around television sets to cheer on their candidates, fervently hoping for a crown; many other countries barely even acknowledge the event. This year’s Miss Universe pageant wouldn’t have been any different, if it wasn’t for Harvey’s now-infamous foible that mixed up the first runner-up (Miss Colombia) with the actual winner (Miss Philippines). Suddenly, the whole world tuned in to the drama, and you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing chatter about what had just happened in Las Vegas.

Though initially overshadowed by the drama surrounding that pivotal night, Wurtzbach is slowly easing into her role as an international beauty queen. So careful is she with her words and actions that initially, she seems a tad reserved, even aloof. However, it only takes a few minutes into our interview before she warms up. “Now, people are focusing more on what Miss Universe is about and what I’m doing,” she explains. “People have been asking less and less about the whole Steve Harvey episode, which is good.”

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A BUMPY RIDE

“I want to continue being more than just a beauty queen. I want to be an inspiration,” Wurtzbach stated. “That’s why I like sharing my story—because it’s relatable. Nothing was ever handed to me, so now I appreciate the value of everything.”

Born in Stuttgart, Germany to a German father and a Filipina mum, Wurtzbach’s family eventually moved to Cagayan de Oro, a major city in southern Philippines, where she grew up. It was a happy and uneventful childhood, and like many children her age, Wurtzbach had nothing to worry about aside from her grades. But after her parents separated when she was nine, she began to struggle. Her father returned to Germany and Wurtzbach, a self-confessed daddy’s girl, was left straining to cope with not only the loss of her “partner in crime,” but also the sudden shortage of finances.

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“My situation with my parents was difficult,” she says. “People have different ways of dealing with these things—for instance, many rebel—but my way of getting out of that plight was to strive to be better.”

At 11, she joined ABS-CBN’s talent agency Star Magic under the name Pia Romero. One can’t really say that her career kicked off then and there; for years, the network had trouble figuring out how to package her. “They tried to cut my hair, place me in different shows, and even pair me with a lot of guys for love teams—but nothing clicked,” she says. “Though I wasn’t a superstar actress, I still considered myself successful because I had a stable career. Work was consistent, enough to sustain the family, which was why I got into showbiz anyway. To me, that was enough.”

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Her ultimate dream, however, didn’t lie in show business. She wanted, with all of her being, to be Miss Universe. Wurtzbach is a resilient one—she’s made no secret of the two times she failed to win the Binibining Pilipinas crown. The first time she competed, she won first runner-up, but on her second attempt, she didn’t even place. It was a devastating loss, and Wurtzbach retreated to her room for days, avoiding the television lest she come across replays of the coronation. Her mum then dragged her to Boracay to recuperate, and there, cocktail in hand, Wurtzbach began planning her comeback.

Read Miss Universe Pia Alonso Wurtzbach’s full cover story in the April issue, now available in all leading book stores and newsstands nationwide and downloadable via MagzterZinio, and PressReader.