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But in 1989, Kris asked for a trial separation from Robert. Despite being married to ‘the best man in the world’, she was bored. Robert refused. Soon afterwards she embarked on an affair with a 22-year-old football player, Todd Waterman. ‘Everything about me was all about family,’ she wrote. ‘Now it was all about sex.’ Todd told the Daily Mail he remembers Robert chasing him with a golf club, after a private detective revealed the affair. Kris has referred to those days as the ‘darkest of my life’, describing herself as ‘out of control and selfish’. ‘I met Robert when I was a teenager. I wasn’t old enough to realize marriage is full of ups and downs,’ she told Wendy Williams. ‘My divorce is my greatest regret in my life.’

THE NEXT EPISODEDivorce was also a financial reality check for which Kris, 32, was ill equipped. ‘I had never paid a bill,’ she wrote. She couldn’t pay her lawyer’s retainer because she had no access to money. ‘Later in life I would decide that was a situation I would never be in again.’ But she wasn’t single for long. In 1990, she met 41-year-old retired athlete Bruce Jenner, who was twice divorced and had four children. They married in five months. ‘Like me, he got out of bed running, going a million miles an hour with an agenda that would frighten most people,’ she wrote. ‘I had met my match.’

By now, Kris had mended bridges with Robert, who came over once a week for dinner with the family. ‘Bruce got everyone’s stamp of approval,’ she wrote, and he loved her kids too, but he was ‘no Rockefeller’ and his career was stalling. And so Bruce became Kris’s first client. In 1992, Kris made her first TV appearance in a series of infomercials for the Super Step, a home-aerobics programme. ‘I stood next to Bruce in my spandex shorts and matching sports bra,’ she wrote. ‘I was so nervous I could barely get my name out.’

Kris had remained good friends with Nicole Simpson, who, despite divorcing O.J., was still in an on-off relationship with him.

Kris recalls how Nicole was often anxious, convinced that someone was watching her house at night. ‘Once she told me, “He’s going to kill me. And he’s going to get away with it.”’ On 12 June 1994, Nicole’s premonition came true. She was stabbed to death on her doorstep along with her friend Ron Goldman.

Nicole’s murder had a dramatic effect on the Kardashian family. The children knew the couple as Uncle O.J. and Aunty Nicole but Robert was part of O.J.’s dream team of defence attorneys. ‘Robert believed O.J.’s story that he was innocent,’ wrote Kris. ‘I didn’t believe O.J., not for a second.’ The trial of the decade ensued. The

world was stunned when O.J. was found ‘not guilty’. Kris never saw or spoke to O.J. again.

Kris and Bruce’s daughter, Kendall Nicole Jenner, was born in 1995 and her sister Kylie arrived two years later. One of Kim’s first boyfriends was TJ Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew. When Kim and TJ broke up, Kris cried in her bathroom. ‘Everything was larger than life because that’s the way our family did things,’ Kris wrote. ‘Everybody who knew our family kept telling us the same thing: your family is so crazy, you should have a TV show.’

Fast forward to 2013, and Kris is still at the helm of the Kardashian empire. This year has been a busy one, with rumours that her marriage to Bruce is on the rocks (sources say it’s unlikely, as it would be bad for business) and the launch of her own talk show. And having signed a deal with E!, committing them to three more seasons, the Kardashians aren’t going anywhere just yet. ‘My fantasy is to have Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Season 26,’ Kris told The Hollywood Reporter last year. ‘Who knew it would be this profitable? I should have had more kids.’

JUNE SHANNON (a.k.a. The Coupon Queen)Mother and manager to… Seven year-old Alana (a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo Child) ThompsonTV time June, a grandmother at 31, appeared alongside her daughter on Toddlers & Tiaras. Their own spin-off reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is set in rural Georgia and premiered with 2,2-million viewers. Critics Kris Jenner is said to be one. According to an unnamed source, Kris thinks the family is ‘classless’ and ‘can’t understand why America is so fascinated by them’. On Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show, June said, ‘We are who we are. I love being around my family, so that’s all that matters.’Motherly love On the show June has fed her daughter road kill and

often gives her ‘go-go juice’, a highly caffeinated blend of energy drink and Mountain Dew. June defended her choices for her daughter, saying, ‘There are far worse things. I could be giving her alcohol.’Net worth It has been reported that the family is paid $50 000 (about R454 000) per episode, and Alana is worth $300 000 (about R2 726 000).

DINA LOHANMother and manager to… Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan TV time Dina’s reality-TV show Living Lohan followed the lives of Dina and her other daughter Ali. It aired for only nine episodes in 2008.Critics Among many others, Doctor Phil. She appeared on his show in September 2012 and behaved erratically – crying, babbling incoherently and flipping her finger at the host after he asked her how she felt being called ‘the worst mother in America’. Motherly love Dina signed up her two daughters, aged three, to modelling agencies. ‘You don’t like that?’ she said. ‘I’m living the American Dream.’Net worth According to sources, Dina is $1,3-million (about R12,5-million) in debt.

MOMMY DEAREST HER DAUGHTER KHLOÉ HAS CALLED HER A ‘FAME WHORE’ BUT KRIS JENNER INSISTS SHE’S ‘A REALLY GOOD MOM’. HERE ARE SOME OTHER FAMOUS MOMAGERS WHO HAVE AN UNUSUAL PARENTING STYLE…

JUNESHANNON DINA

LOHAN

‘Everybody who knew our family

kept telling us the

same thing: your family

should have a TV show’

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124 january 2013

MARGARET GARDINER (1959 – )

Beyond THECROWN

WORDS VANESSA MCCULLOCH

AS THE ONLY SOUTH AFRICAN TO EVER WEAR THE MISS UNIVERSE SASH, THIS FORMER MODEL WENT ON TO BECOME A BEAUTY QUEEN, MOTHER, GRADUATE AND JOURNALIST. AND SHE HAS PLANS TO ADD YET ANOTHER TITLE TO HER NAME

hen I get in touch with Margaret in LA to set up an interview, there’s a slight problem. It’s not that she’s

unwilling – she seems genuinely touched to be the focus of such interest – it’s just that she’s busy. Really busy.

She’s dropping off stuff for the homeless and then going to interview Joaquin (yes, Phoenix), then she’s interviewing Lindsay. Then there’s dinner with her 17-year-old son Brandon, and back out for Denzel Washington’s new movie Flight. Tomorrow’s no good as she’s got interviews with Spielberg, Sally Field and Daniel Day Lewis. Saturday she’s interviewing Denzel and then, after some precious family time, heading to London for Thor 2. ‘It’s no big deal,’ she says. ‘This is my life. It doesn’t slow down.’

When we make contact again, Margaret tells me that she knew she wanted to be a writer since she was a little girl. She appears not in the least starstruck. ‘I love focusing on other people,’ she says, adding that she used to be ‘horribly shy’. Despite an extensive modelling career and being crowned Miss Universe in 1978 – still the only South African to do so – she pauses when asked about the highlight of her career. ‘It’s hard to say. When I was 15 a poem of mine was published in the Cape Argus. I was pretty psyched about that.’

‘Margaret is determined and very grounded,’ says her older sister Sandy, who lives in Cape Town and runs her own modelling school, Sandy B Models. ‘She’s warm and she draws people in. The fact that she meets famous people so often is by the way, like a doctor with patients.’ But then, of course, she has had her own experience of stardom. In 1978, when an 18-year-old Margaret returned to Cape Town after being crowned Miss Universe, crowds gathered at the airport. Later that day, there was a parade down Adderley Street in her honour. Margaret was ‘mortified’, thinking that nobody would turn up but a beauty pageant win, at this international level, was a headline event that captivated the nation. ‘It was like the man on the moon had arrived!’ says photographer Bernard Jordaan, remembering the

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streets filled with streamers and people hoping to get a glimpse of their home-grown star. Margaret was ‘proud to have won for SA’ and also ‘amazed at the kindness of strangers and their interest in me’.

Bernard, who worked for Rapport, one of the sponsors of Miss SA and then Miss RSA, spent six weeks a year covering the stories of the winners. He first played a part in Margaret’s career when he ‘discovered’ her aged 15 at a small beauty competition, where he was a judge. ‘She wasn’t the typical beauty girl,’ he says. She was very tall (taller than was fashionable at the time) with long legs and the most beautiful blue eyes.’ But it was illness that initially pushed Margaret into the beauty world. ‘I had TB when I was young and I entered my first pageant as a pick-me-up for the treatment,’ she explains. ‘My family has always supported me, in everything. I had one of the best childhoods.’

Margaret grew up in Woodstock, Cape Town, with her parents and two older sisters Sandy and Beverly, all three years apart in age. ‘I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have the amazing sisters I have,’ says Margaret, who describes her home as ‘a house of females, all strong, opinionated and hard-working’. Sandy jokes over the phone, ‘Our poor father! Even the dog was a girl.’ She proudly recalls how everyone remarked on Margaret’s beauty, and how she excelled at school, especially at History and English. Their mother, Dawn, was a stay-at-home mom who Margaret describes as ‘super strong, caring and giving’ while their father was a lithographer and silk screener. ‘He was the strong, silent type,’ says Sandy. ‘He was good-looking, very supportive of us all – he was Margaret’s hero.’

‘The lessons I learnt growing up at home have allowed me to carry myself with dignity amongst leaders of the world and people in poverty,’ says Margaret, whose trajectory has placed her alongside everyone from the homeless to celebrities who are multiproperty owners. Interestingly, Sandy was the first in the family to start modelling. ‘I felt so proud standing in the audience,’ wrote Margaret in her 1994 book Winning in Modelling and Beauty Competitions. ‘I never dared hope that I could follow in her footsteps.’ Later that year Margaret got her first job as a model for American Swiss. The shoot took place early in the morning in Greenmarket Square, and she made it just in time for school. Then, a famous model scout for Elite, Johnny Casablancas,

‘I had TB when I was young and

I entered my first pageant as a pick-me-

up for the treatment’

Above, left to right Margaret Gardiner as a young, blonde-haired toddler; Margaret on the beach, just after turning 50 in 2009; in the Adderley Street parade after winning Miss Universe. Opposite Margaret was crowned Miss Universe in 1978, at the age of 18.

arrived in Cape Town on a recruiting drive. It was Bernard who took Margaret to meet him at the Mount Nelson – after Sandy had done her make-up for her, and lent her a dress. Casablancas asked Margaret, then 16, if she wanted to go to Paris, and two weeks later she was off. Two weeks after that she shot her first cover for French magazine Jacinthe. Following a job for Dior, she was booked for her second magazine cover. Despite being a teenage model in Paris and far from home, Margaret stayed on the straight and narrow. In Winning in Modelling, she warns about the ‘dangers’ of her chosen profession, recounting how a model friend in Europe became an alcoholic at 17 and also about seeing girls turn to bulimia to stay thin. That was a path Margaret was not going to follow. ‘She was innocent and inexperienced,’ says Sandy, ‘but she remained true to herself all the way.’

Margaret was rewarded at 18, when she postponed a modelling job in Italy to enter the Miss Republic of South Africa competition. It was at the height of apartheid, but this new pageant, sponsored by Rapport, was the first non-racially-segregated competition of its kind in South Africa. ‘It was

something I believed in,’ says Margaret. She had already experienced discrimination for being South African, while working in Paris, but was unprepared for the level of scrutiny that she received in Mexico for the Miss Universe competition. ‘Everyone expected me to be racist, which was disconcerting as I had practically been raised in Bishop Tutu’s St George’s Cathedral,’ Margaret says. After battling to get a visa for Mexico, her national costume (with its ostrich-feather headpiece) was held back by customs and the South African flag was banned from the auditorium. Against all odds, Margaret won and the crown was awarded to her by the

first black Miss Universe, Trinidad’s Janelle Penny Commissiong. While Margaret felt proud to have won for her country, she

describes her following year as Miss Universe as one ‘that kind of gutted me on fame’. She was refused entry to many countries, experienced demonstrations against her and struggled with the labels associated with being a ‘beauty queen’. ‘You couldn’t be pretty and strong and enter a pageant. You had to be dumb and exploited.’ However, she admits that the benefits, such as ‘the education of world travel and the exposure’, far outweighed

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Left to right Margaret with George Clooney and Stacy Keibler on the red carpet at the Golden Globes; with her family.

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the challenges. And she still retained her sense of fun. Sandy remembers how Margaret, who was often recognized in the streets and asked for her autograph, would sometimes swap identities with her. ‘Passersby would say, “Look! There’s Margaret Gardiner!” and Margaret would walk up to me and tap me on the shoulder and say “Hello Margaret Gardiner!” to confuse people. We had a lot of fun.’

Soon enough, her year as Miss Universe was over. ‘Go gracefully,’ she wrote in Winning in Modelling of handing over your crown. ‘Never let other people’s expectations hold you back.’ After the competition, Margaret moved to New York and continued her modelling career. She hints at partying with the rich and famous although her lips are respectfully sealed about the details. ‘There were lots of parties, of course. Rubbing shoulders with the powerful and the famous,’ she says, neatly navigating around the question of whether she’s dated any A-listers. ‘Sometimes you encounter people who you adore and connect with. That they happen to be all those other things is not what’s best about them.’

argaret remained in the US and in her mid twenties she graduated from

Charleston College in South Carolina with a degree in Psychology and International Politics. In the years that followed, she returned to Miss Universe regularly as a judge or a commentator. But it was as a judge at a local beauty pageant in Stellenbosch, ‘Miss Matieland’, that Margaret’s life took its next turn when she met her future husband Dr André Nel. The couple married on 14 February 1987, at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, and two years later when André was offered a position at the University of California they moved to LA. In 1995, their son Brandon was born. ‘Nothing had prepared me for the unselfish, pure love that a mother feels for a child,’ explains Margaret, who had suffered a dangerous ectopic pregnancy and miscarried a few years earlier. ‘I’d always been ambitious, but [when my son was born] my ambition disintegrated.’ From then on, her career came second: she was first and foremost a mother.

Four years later, Margaret faced what she calls her ‘biggest challenge’. While shooting a TV ad in LA, the director noticed a mark on her chest and urged her to get it checked out. It was a rare type of skin cancer. It took a 10-hour operation that left her with a five-inch scar on her chest, to remove the tumour. ‘My son was four at the time and because I had a skin graft I wasn’t able to use my

m

arms,’ she told Algoa FM last year. ‘It changed my life dramatically.’ Her advice to other cancer patients: ‘Hang onto your strength and feed your soul whenever you can.’ Once she’d recovered, her career took a new turn. After doing a stint as a correspondent host on Good Morning South Africa and having published her book, she was approached by the entertainment magazine TVPlus to be interviewed and then asked to do her first published interview (‘I think it was on Sandra Bullock, but might have been Jen Aniston or Sharon Stone,’ she says). Soon after, she was invited to join the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She is now a respected entertainment journalist writing for a range of publications from Rooi Rose to Longevity. Out of all the celebrities she’s interviewed, she says Angelina Jolie stands out the most – ‘Here is a woman who is smart, beautiful, lives courageously, is talented and takes on projects in third-world countries that people would rather forget about. She gets a bum rap from people.’ Margaret’s job now involves

red-carpet interviews and invites to the Golden Globes, which she describes as ‘hard work but a total blast – the last couple of years I worked seating the stars. It’s live but laid-back and the stars are very social, and then of course there are the afterparties when all the pressure is off.’ Designers including Oliver Tolentino have offered to make her dresses for the Golden Globes, but Margaret is still as grounded as ever: ‘If I’m not doing a televized interview, I buy an off-the-rack dress for nothing. I take absolute delight in the fact that stars who have spent thousands will

come up to me saying, “Who is that you’re wearing?”’ She seems unfazed by the celebrities she sees ‘at parties, at the gym or in the grocery store. This is LA – that’s just life here.’

Now 53 years old, Margaret remains eye-catchingly beautiful and is still as amazed by people’s reactions to her as she was 34 years ago, in the Adderley Street parade. ‘When a woman comes up to me and says something lovely to me about how I look, I’m in awe that anyone noticed enough to tell me,’ she says. ‘I think everyone is their own kind of beautiful. Everyone has something special.’ I think of Margaret, now on the next leg of her trip: in New York and then Rome and then back to New York for more interviews. When I asked her what’s left on her wish list, she told me that she hopes one day to write ‘quality fiction, with an unusual voice’. Considering that this once-shy girl from Woodstock has achieved everything else that she’s ever set her mind to – I think she just might.

‘Everyone is their own

kind of beautiful.

Everyone has something

special’

life story

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