She worked as a model from the age of 16, in South Africa, Europe, and America, where she took advanced lessons at New York's Joffrey Ballet School, until a knee injury ended that career path.
When a bank teller refused to cash her last modeling check because it was drawn on an out-of-state bank, she became furious, swearing in Afrikaans until she was approached in the bank lobby by a stranger who offered his card.