KERRY WELLS MISS UNIVERSE 1972

Can you imagine being titled the most beautiful woman in the Universe???!!!!!!!

Kerry Anne Wells (born 1952) is an Australian fashion designer, writer, commentator, news anchor and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1972. The 1972 pageant was the first to take place outside the continental United States.I first met Kerry back in 1974/1975 and was totally in awe of her beauty and grace, having won miss Universe, it was like WOW!!!!! Kerry was a friend of my eldest sister, Valeska (who was also pretty wow! )

Kerry Anne Wells  won the title in 1972 against all odds.However, her crowning moment was not shown on TV due to the pageant electricians strike! During the announcement of winners, the TV screen blacked out as her name was about to be announced as Miss Universe. Talk about a shitty circumstance! However, she was recognized and crowned-as she should be!  Continue reading to find out all you can about this incredible woman.

Miss Universe 2004 Jennifer Hawkins was the latest Australian title holder and was crowned as the most beautiful woman in the universe in Quito, Ecuador. The second Australian since Kerry Anne Wells who was crowned in Dorado, Puerto Rico.(Coincidentally both women were crowned in Spanish speaking countries).

 

Year	Country/Territory	Winner	Age	Height
1972	Australia	Kerry Anne Wells	20	5’11”
2004	Australia	Jennifer Hawkins	20	5’11”

 

Kerry Wells is now a successful fashion designer, writer and commentator. She is an advocate for positive realistic body image and self-esteem and is now involved with BodyThink, a healthy lifestyle program that is designed to help Australian schools.

 

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey. Where you live, married, children etc?

I’m now living back in Perth where I grew up.  I went to New York when I was 20 and worked there and in Europe as a model for 6 years with an interruption for the Miss Universe year.  Have also lived twice in Sydney and twice in Melbourne and briefly in central and south america.  I have been with my current husband Mick for 16 years and we have an English bull terrier named Roxy.  They are the loves of my life.  I missed the children thing due to pelvic inflammatory disease in my 20s but have Mick’s kids and grandkids and tons of god children. My only nephew Brendan, aged 19, is also a big part of my life.  He is gorgeous.

How did you get to be part of Miss Universe 1972? Where did that take you?

This was somewhat accidental.  I was well known in Perth as a model and also as a “weather bird” (can you imagine them using that term now?) and was approached to raise money for sick children by entering a beauty contest.  I did not have the wherewithall at 18 to say “sure, love to raise money for the sick children but you can keep your beauty contest and by the way, how about asking the boys to raise money too”.It all snowballed and I ended up winning in Puerto Rico. I rarely discuss that year because I have very little to say about it that is positive.

Tell me about your Interior design company and when you started that?

I modelled from 16 to 32 then worked as a fashion designer and stylist but the entire time I had been studying design at Uni and tech colleges.  Modelling is one of the great jobs to have if you are a compulsive studier as I was.  My obsession is the reuse of space.  I mostly work on dysfunctional old houses, completely re-imagining  the layout.  In Perth, they used to bowl over the old houses but now they are too expensive to do that so there is no shortage of places to redesign.  I have a service redesigning floor plans on line as well.  I also organise the building or clients can choose to do that themselves.  Sometimes my clients want me to extend my service to choosing their furniture, window coverings etc. which I find a bit weird as it is such a personal thing.  I love my work which can be viewed on www.kerrywellsdesign.com.au

What made you decide at to take up playing the Cello at 58?

I play classical piano but when I met Mick, who also plays piano, it was divisional.  If he was playing I wanted to, and vice versa.  I fell in love with the cello at a music festival  and decided to give it a go. Took to it like a duck to water as the music is mostly geometric in my head (there are no set stops on a cello like there are on a guitar…no frets) which I love.  It goes back to the same spacial imagination I like using for designing buildings.  Now, some 6 or so years later, Mick and I play together most nights and I am about to join an amateur orchestra.  I have come to realise that if I had found cello at a young age, it probably would have been my life’s work.  Funny the way things work out!  My current attempt is Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor Opus 129 which is way above my pay grade but I love it so much I will keep at it!  see Mischa Maisky playing it on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIZNsLs5L9g . Utterly divine.

Where did you learn to ski? What age did you start?

Mick was an experienced and keen skier and wanted me to ski.  I think I was 54 the first year I skied and, although I am not the least athletic, found I loved it.  I had chronic fatigue syndrome at the time so heaven knows how I managed….for 7 years I was hardly able to walk.  I think skiing made me feel well again and the cold definitely helped with the fatigue.  I am now on serious black runs and marvelling at being so brave as I am usually the most dreadful chicken.  On the ski fields in Colorado you see people skiing well into their 90s, they ski like olympians but when they come in for a hot chocolate they can barely walk.  I figured this is something I can do until I drop!  We ski Colorado or Canada for a month each year but I would extend that to 3 months or more if I did not miss my dog so much when I am away.

What advice would you have given your younger self and would you have changed anything?

People always say they have no regrets but I am not one of those!  I was a late maturer and extremely shy, which is why modelling was good because I was anonymous, and why Miss Universe was bad because it was personal and very public.  It took to 45 years of age for me to overcome being shy and introverted – which I believe is a genetic trait inherited from my dad.  So I would tell myself to briefly visit being 50 to see how wonderful life is once one overcomes shyness and then attack life with no fear.

Thank you Kerry for taking the time to answer some of my questions, life really does begin at 50!!!!!