Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Elisa Gray:Hail, the queen!
Do you need help?” Allure staff writer Pinky Icamen asked Catriona Elisa Gray, 24, then newly crowned Miss Universe-Philippines, when the beauty queen arrived at the pictorial for the Women of Allure in June. A big bag was slung in her shoulder, the strap of which creasing her printed haltered top.
“Oh, no. Thank you. I can very well manage,” Catriona answered, her voice chirpy, as she went straight to the elevator of Nobu at the City of Dreams Manila with her hands carrying two other bags. She proceeded to the holding room that doubled as the makeup room wearing the biggest smile that she sincerely flashed to the production team. Her smile was sincere; her laughter, infectious.
Catriona, that day, already exhibited the makings of a Miss Universe.
During my interview with her that took place at the holding room after the shoot, Catriona made a request. “Can I please try the bed?” Then, like a child, she plopped herself in the bed, cocooned herself under the soft comforter. “I feel like a queen,” she giggled.
“Please, please, allow me to be interviewed as I lie in this soft, soft bed.” And for 36 minutes and 30 seconds, as she lay in bed, she answered freely all my questions.
For someone who had a voice so cheery her tone could bring happiness to an entire room, Catriona admitted to growing up a shy kid.
“I am an only child. I was born in Cairns, Queensland. Then my parents and I moved to Sydney. We moved to New Wales. We moved around Australia. I was just really close to my parents and actually we moved around a lot when I was very young. I think it played a big part in making me the shy teenager that I was.
“Having established friendships and having to break them when we moved from one place to another — that made me a shy child. I wouldn’t approach people first. I wait for them to approach me. I was a very quiet, shy child. I just became quite talkative in high school, in Grade 10 onwards,” she said.
Catriona Gray. Photo by Mau Aguasin
(Catriona, after winning Miss Universe-Philippines 2018, has worked closely with Young Focus Philippines where she provided help for the poor children of Tondo, Manila. She flew home to Manila after being crowned Miss Universe in Bangkok to participate in the gift-giving activity of Frontrow Cares for Gentle Hands, a charity for children in Quezon City. “I love working with children because, as an only child, I grew up always wishing for siblings.”)
Catriona’s apparent favorite topic was her parents — Ian Gray, a retired civil engineer from Queensland, and Normita Ragas Magnayon, an accountant who originally hailed from Oas, Albay. Her eyes got dreamy when she talked about them. (And anywhere I brought the conversation, it would always end up with Catriona remembering the good deeds and influence of her parents on her.)
“Growing up in Australia, I was very, very close to my parents kasi I didn’t have any relatives nearby. My relatives would either be in the States or in the Philippines, also in Germany,” she said.
She was three years old when she first came to the Philippines. When she was 18, she settled in Manila. She used the money she earned from modeling since she was 16 to buy her plane ticket.
“I remember Christmas here we would have lechon, all the party food, ang daming pagkain. The fire crackers on the street. All of my family was there. There was a very big contrast to my family life in Australia, where it’s very quiet. Here, it’s big and loud and rowdy. I have so many cousins here also. I had all of these children to play with all of a sudden rather than being alone,” Catriona recalled.
Catriona is a beautiful mixture of two cultures. “On my Filipino side, it’s really the value of family. No matter what your family does or where your family is, you always need to look after each other. There’s that two-way support. I think that’s very Filipino. The love for food is always there when there’s a celebration. You can’t have a celebration without food.”
She added: “On the Australian side naman, I think it’s my easy-going nature. I don’t stress a lot. I don’t worry a lot. I have an attitude of ‘it will be fine, it will work out.’ There’s nothing to stress about. Let’s just see what happens. I feel like I’m very laid-back and low-maintenance. I’m not very materialistic. I like the simple things in life. I like being around nature. I love being with my loved ones. I think that’s very Australian.”
At the coronation night of Miss Universe 2018 last Monday in Bangkok, Thailand, Catriona displayed intelligence and wit. Her intelligence is the by-product of the knowledge she acquired at home. She confessed to being a nerd, taking two Science and two Math subjects (per grade level). Her mom led her to being studious because instead of giving her Game Boy and PlayStations and a TV set, Catriona’s mother gave her educational software on their family computer for Math and stuff. By the time she went to school, she already knew the fundamentals. She can even rearrange notes of a song in her head — that’s because she took up a diploma course in Music Theory at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, focusing on harmonization. In the IQ department, she was very confident.
To this day, three or four books share a space with her on her bed. Yes, she also has a talent for reading different books simultaneously — with 100-percent comprehension.
Her father also helped developed her EQ. “My dad is 20 years older than my mom. Growing up, I felt like he knew everything. I felt like for every question I had, he had an answer. He always told me, ‘The longest journey begins with a single step.’ His words put me into a frame of mind that I can really do it if I just take bite-size pieces rather than getting overwhelmed by seeing the whole journey in front of me and feeling small,” Catriona, 5’10” in height, recalled.
Catriona, long before Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters passed the crown to her, was already Miss Universe — in thought, in word, in deed.
Hail, the queen!
(E-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Christmas.)
