Wearing a gorgeous gown, a tiara and her sash, Celestina Aolele Grant looks every inch the regal beauty queen at our photo shoot.
Crowned Miss Mana Wahine at Miss Rotorua in 2022, you’d never guess that just three years earlier, she was at rock bottom – a P addict who sold both drugs and her body.
Celestina, 48, who is of Ngāti Awa and Te Arawa descent, tells Woman’s Day her struggles started when she was being raised by her grandparents in the Bay of Plenty.
With fellow contestants, makeup artist Te Aroha (left) and hairstylist Rosemary.
“My mother left early on to live in Australia, so I grew up with her brothers and sisters,” shares Celestina. “They were jealous of me and I rebelled. I left at 13 to live with my mum.”
It was a decision she came to regret for the rest of her life.
“I wish I had never gone,” she admits. “I didn’t get on with my mum. Her husband told his family that I was her niece.”
Feeling rejected and unloved in Adelaide, Celestina fled to Sydney to live with another relative, but he had his own problems and this move sealed her fate for the next 30 years.
“He was a drug taker,” says Celestina. “I ended up making some fast, easy money as a sex worker in King’s Cross. It was there that the drug addiction really took hold.”
She started smoking crack cocaine at the age of 14 and switched to P when she returned to New Zealand. “Cocaine was hard to get at home and meth was cheap,” she explains.
At 21, she met her husband, Alaovae Aolele. She married him two months later and they had three children together, Esther, now 11, Isabella, eight, and Baby, five. But when Baby was just three months old, Celestina abandoned her whānau.
She recalls, “When I met my husband, it was the first time somebody showed me real love and I just didn’t know how to take it.”
Celestina with her “rock”, husband Alaovae, and their daughters Esther (back) and Isabella.
Celestina managed to abstain from P while pregnant, but when life got hard, her instinct was to leave. Months later, she found herself back addicted to meth and in an abusive relationship with a gang member.
She began selling drugs for the gang, but when she landed in court for running over her then-boyfriend with a car, she cut ties with them. “The gang became my family, but the man I was seeing started threatening the lives of my children and I felt I had to do something.”
Fifteen months later, she returned to her real whānau and reconciled with Alaovae, 55.
Celestina tells, “When I look back, it was really the love of my husband I have to thank for my recovery. He was the one person who never gave up on me.”
After her niece Evarna Koia won Miss Rotorua in 2019, Celestina was inspired by all the strong, beautiful women on the event’s Facebook page. Encouraged by Alaovae and her new friends at church, she reached out to the pageant organiser, fashion designer Kharl WiRepa, who took her under his wing and encouraged her to enter.
Ready to perform a Siva Samoa dance for the pageant’s talent section.
“My niece came from a similar background, so I thought, ‘If she can do it, I can do it,'” says Celestina, but she was still stunned when she took out the Miss Mana Wahine title.
“I couldn’t have done it without my husband,” she says tearfully. “He’s my rock. When they say someone’s sent from Heaven, I believe he is. I mean, he’s vacuuming at the moment – he’s cleaning the whole house!”
Today, Celestina works for health charity Mauriora, which she represented in the pageant.
“They’ve been a big part of my life this past year,” enthuses Celestina. “And now I’ve been given the opportunity to start a meth programme that allows addicts to get into a buddy system, where they can ring someone if they think they’ll relapse. That’s what I want for our people – meth in Rotorua is a big problem.”
Helping others has become Celestina’s passion and she hopes to continue using the pageant platform to inspire people who come from similar backgrounds. In August, she’ll enter Mrs Exquisite and, in October, she’ll compete in Mrs Waikato.
Celestina being crowned Miss Mana Wahine.
“When you get your self-confidence back, everything just works,” she smiles.
If you’re struggling with your mental health, please call or text 1737 at any time to speak to a trained counsellor for free. For the Alcohol Drug Helpline, phone 0800 787 797. In an emergency, always dial 111.
