Tim Tebow’s wife, Demi-Leigh, recalls harrowing moment she survived a carjacking

Tim Tebow’s wife, Demi-Leigh Tebow, recalled a traumatic situation when she fought off a male assailant during an armed carjacking in 2017.

In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Demi-Leigh — who married the former NFL quarterback-turned ESPN analyst in 2020 — explained how quick thinking and a hard punch to her attacker’s throat helped her escape the life-threatening situation.

“Shortly after I won Miss South Africa [March 26, 2017], about three months later, I was on my way to an event as the official Miss South Africa … And I was stopped at a red traffic light. And before I could even blink, I was surrounded by five men, by multiple men, and some of them were armed,” said Demi-Leigh, who was promoting her new book, “A Crown That Lasts.”

Though Demi-Leigh said “it’s hard to react” in the moment, she’s thankful her dad “forced me to go on safety driving courses, on self-defense workshops” at one point in time.

“In that traumatic situation, I knew not to go to the second destination, because whatever is about to happen somewhere downtown, in some dark alley with [maybe more people present] is not going to be better than right here: broad daylight, peak-hour traffic with hundreds of people around me,” she said.

“And, so, I tried to run away. I tried to get out of that vehicle. The man on my side of the vehicle grabbed me, pushed me back into the vehicle, said, ‘Get in, you’re going with us.’”

During the harrowing ordeal, Demi-Leigh remembered “a second thing” she learned in her previous self-defense courses.

“The throat. It’s obviously lethal,” she said. “So please don’t ever try this at home. It’s absolutely just to be used in a life-threatening situation.

“But I punched him as hard as I could in his throat, and that bought me a split-second window of opportunity to run away.”

Demi-Leigh added “the most dramatic part of that story was running up that avenue in broad daylight … Nobody would stop to help me.”

“I remember looking over my shoulder, not knowing if I’m being chased and [about to be] shot in the back, not knowing what their intent was. I just knew that it was not good,” she said.

“That moment really broke my heart and made me never want to be one of the [people behind] the many car windows that I knocked on, begging, asking, yelling for help. I want to be the one girl that eventually stopped for me … to help somebody in need.”

Demi-Leigh is dedicated to fighting for women around the world with her #Unbreakable Campaign, a project created to “empower college students with how to look out for themselves [and] how to be preventative in certain situations.”

The former Miss Universe winner said she and Tebow, 36, connected over their passion for philanthropy and caring for victims and survivors of human trafficking when they first met.

They met in early 2018 through Night to Shine, which is part of his non-profit, The Tim Tebow Foundation. Tebow confirmed the couple was dating in July of that year.

Demi-Leigh and Tebow tied the knot at the La Paris Estate in Cape Town, South Africa in 2020 — one year after the Florida Gator great proposed on Jan. 20, 2019.