Joyce Giraud Talks Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Charity Beauty Pageants

Latina.com:

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is back....and better than ever with a new Puerto Rican castmate!

Joyce Giraud de Ohoven could hardly be described as just a housewife. The beautiful model, actress, producer, and philanthropist was born and raised in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. In 1998, she got her big break–winning the coveted Miss Puerto Rico Universe competition and eventually taking home the runner-up award in the Miss Universe competition. Now, the beautiful boricua has launched a successful acting career, starring in the mockumentary series, Siberia.

We sat down with the gorgeous boricua to discuss the new season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, her work with charity, her Puerto Rican heritage, and her life as a mamá: 

What are you working on right now? 

Well, right now I’m working on a pageant called Queen of the Universe. It’s an international charity based pageant that has always been a dream of mine. Pageants were a platform for me, and they helped me get to where I am today. You suddenly stop being just another girl, and people want to listen to what you have to say. I wanted to give women that title and that feeling regardless of their status–if they’re single, married, have babies... In any pageant I participated in, you couldn’t be pregnant, but there’s a lot of girls that have babies at a young age! Why is it that if she has a baby, she should be disqualified? I think she should be even more qualified if she has a baby. A baby is an amazing blessing and an amazing experience.

So, how is your pageant different from other pageants? 

I changed everything that I thought was wrong with the other pageants. Girls can be single or divorced. I don’t judge them based on gender choices or whether or not they had a child at a young age. The only requirement is that they have to have a charity platform. The entire charity is to benefit UNESCO. 

You can go on the website to see the sizzler from last year's pageant. It's a very beautiful event. We are going to tape it for television, and try to air it. This is my second year, and I'm still trying to perfect it. We've already had a couple of networks approach us to say, "It's perfect, let's air it!" 

This is the second Queen of the Universe pageant. Is there any particularly moving story from the first pageant?

There are a lot of beautiful stories–I have a million! I’ll give you one from my winner, Yvette. Her father always wanted her to do a beauty pageant. Just when her father passed away, she heard about the Queen of the Universe pageant, so she decided to do it for her dad. The day before the pageant, we were rehearsing. As we were doing the final run down, she started to feel extremely nervous. She’s not an actress; she’s a realtor, and she told me she was shaking so hard at the rehearsal that she wanted to drop out. She looked up, and she saw a feather in the sky of the venue. There’s no feathers in the theater! We didn’t have any! She told me that a feather was always a symbol of her father. Whenever she sees a feather, she knows her father is with her. So, she looked up at the sky and knew she could do this. She went on to become the winner. She has a beautiful charity called My Sister's Closet, which raises money for prom dresses for underprivileged girls. 

Awesome! So, you’re the new girl on Real Housewives. How has your family adjusted? 

My family adjusted quite well! I’m not a stage mom, so when my babies were asked to do campaigns, I always asked them first. A lot of times, they said no–they didn’t want to do it. People tried to force me to get them to the campaigns, that I should save money for their trust fund. But, I thought, they’re too little. They should have a choice. If they don’t want to do it, why would I put them through it? 

Now, after the show, Leonardo–my big baby–loves film. And Val–my little baby–loves pictures. They tell me, “Mommy, when are your friends with the big cameras coming to my room again?” They miss the crew! We actually never filmed with them that much. The show is about me and the housewives. It’s about the women, and I was very clear about it. My children are a big part of my life, but I try to keep them away from the cameras as much as possible.

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