Her full name is Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite Darego
-Won the Miss World competition in 2001, becoming the first black African woman to win the title
-After she won the Miss World competition, she was named as an honorary member of the Council of Chiefs in Lagos, an extraordinary honor for a woman as young as she was and one that made her the country's youngest chief
-Darego landed a three-year contract with L'Oreal, the cosmetics giant, during her tenure as Miss World
-Agbani is a born-again Christian and does not drink or smoke
-She was featured in an Essense Magazine spread in 2006
-She is signed to Next Model Management, and is currently pursuing a modeling career in Europe.Darego hails from Abonnema, Rivers, and was born into a family of eight children. At ten, Darego was sent to boarding school in a bid to shield her from her mother who had breast cancer. 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. Although her conservative father was against the idea, she entered the M-Net Face of Africa modelling competition, but failed to make it past the first round. She achieved greater success when she was crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria in 2001. Contrary to popular belief, Darego did not replace Valerie Peterside after the latter was dethroned - Peterside had won Miss Nigeria. Darego managed to divide her time between her official duties with her education at the University of Port Harcourt where she was studying Computer Science, and she represented Nigeria in the 2001 Miss Universe competition, held in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. She placed among the top 10 semi-finalists, finishing seventh. She was the only black semi-finalist that year - and the only finalist to wear a maillot swimsuit.
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