Free Reeva: A Mother's Story by June Steenkamp

healthy salads. She gave him a photo and wrote on the back, ‘I will always love you. Forever + ever my babes. Even if we are a million miles apart. Reeves xxx’. And Wayne loved Reeva. He had two winners the day she gave him the photograph and he rode them in her name. He always said the best thing about being a jockey in Port Elizabeth was meeting Barry Steenkamp’s daughter. ‘She’s exactly like her dad,’ he said. ‘He’ll give his last rand away before he worries about himself.’

For jockeys, their job is their life. It’s a tough, competitive, intense schedule. Their mood depends on their ratio of winners to losers. There are more bad days than good, that’s how it goes. Reeva mentioned in her notes for the speech she was due to give to schoolgirls the day she died that she had once been in an ‘abusive relationship’. That was just shorthand, we’re sure, for being in a relationship she knew wasn’t good for her. She was never physically hurt, but she was probably on the wrong end of words that belittled her. Was she cheated on? Yes, that’s why she left him in the end. They were both young, strong-minded people. But she loved Wayne. He was her first love, sweetheart love, and she wasn’t mature enough to walk away until her heart was broken. Relationships are never smooth and easy, are they? As soon as you start loving someone, you start hurting as well because you have expectations of a relationship. Reeva was very proud. She was never, ever, ever one to air her dirty laundry, but she knew she had to move away as soon as she finished her degree course to escape the relationship and regain her self-esteem. Port Elizabeth was too small a community to have hung around in. She was always someone who’d plan ahead carefully, and she looked to make a break.
     
    Reeva had carried on modelling through varsity. In 2004 she was a finalist in the Weekend Post Faces of the Future competition. A year later she was a finalist in the Herald Miss Port Elizabeth contest. After her transformation from brunette to blonde, she won the Face of Avon competition and as part of the winner’s prize flew to Johannesburg to participate in a shoot and enjoy a brief immersion in the world of talent agencies. While she was there, she walked into ICE Models and spoke to Jane Celliers, the agency director, who booked her straight away. At least, that was the story that became family lore. What I didn’t know at the time was how hard Reeva had to knock at the door. Jane told me recently that when Reeva had first dropped her an email from Port Elizabeth, explaining that she had won the national Face of Avon competition and wanted to pursue a career in modelling once she had finished her law degree, her standard response had been to ask how tall she was. When Reeva replied, she said, ‘I’m so sorry. You are absolutely beautiful, but your height is a problem.’

Reeva being Reeva, this was not good enough. Soon afterwards she telephoned Jane saying she was in Johannesburg, she was coming to the area, please would she meet with her. ‘She walked through the door and it was love at first sight,’ Jane said. ‘Wow! This is Reeva.’ Jane acknowledged that yes, she was short by modelling standards, where the minimum requirement is 1.77m, but she had something very special about her. ‘She was probably 1.68 or 1.69 but I rounded it up to 1.70 on her modelling card because I was on her side,’ Jane told me. ‘She was extremely beautiful. Within a few minutes of talking to her I could see that, as well as having that irresistible girl-next-door look, she could be glamorous or natural. She was very versatile. In person, she was matter-of-fact. There was no bull with her. She was outgoing; she had this vivacious, throaty laugh. And I could see from her hair, her skin and her nails, that she looked after herself very well.’

Jane warned her that at twenty-two, she would be embarking on a modelling career a lot later than most