26-year-old Demi-Leigh Tebow, wife of Tim Tebow, shared an emotional video on the couple’s Tim Tebow Foundation’s Facebook page, recounting her attempted abduction that took place four years ago.
Demi-Leigh Tebow Shares Her Story
The video was posted for Tebow’s birthday campaign to raise awareness for human trafficking and $26,000 for Her Song, a non-profit organization that fights human trafficking and cares for trafficked survivors. In 2020, the Tim Tebow Foundation and Her Song aligned to fight
human trafficking together across the globe.
“I never want to victimize myself. But I pray my story serves as a reminder of the countless individuals in need around the world. People who need someone to just step up. This is my story.”
Tebow explained that not long after she had been crowned Miss South Africa, she was sitting at a red traffic light in a South African city she does not name, dressed up for an event. Suddenly, five armed gunmen surrounded her vehicle. “I didn’t know exactly what they wanted from me,” she said. “But I knew it wasn’t good.”
Raising her hands to show the men they could take whatever they wanted, Tebow said in that moment she realized her material possessions were no longer important. She attempted to run from the gunmen, but one forced her back into the car. “Get in, you’re going with us!” she recounts the man shouting. Tebow said she knew in that moment her next actions were critical. She told her would-be abductor: “No. I’m not. I’m not going with you. I don’t care if you shoot me, if you kill me. But I’m not going with you.”
The 2017 Miss Universe pageant winner said she did “her best” to survive the encounter, punching the gunman as hard as should could in the throat. She then abandoned her vehicle and ran up the avenue in heels during “peak-hour traffic” with people and cars everywhere in broad daylight. Fearful she would be shot in the back, Tebow said she knocked on 30 to 40 car windows pleading for help. She said the worst part of her story isn’t that she was attacked, but that not one car stopped. “Not one person stopped to help.”