Jaime VandenBerg has revealed why she kept her pregnancy private while competing at Miss Universe 2025. In an interview with People published August 2, VandenBerg said she and her boyfriend, Aaron Hernandez , kept the news from their families and the Miss Universe Canada organization so she could be judged on her advocacy and years of preparation. VandenBerg discovered she was pregnant while working on a modeling contract in Mexico City. She later announced the pregnancy publicly in March, after competing in the pageant where Fátima Bosch of Mexico ultimately won the title. Why Did Jaime VandenBerg Keep It Private? VandenBerg said she worried a public announcement would reduce her identity to “the pregnant contestant” and overshadow her work addressing gender based violence. That advocacy is deeply personal: VandenBerg survived a near fatal shooting in 2021 and has spent years speaking about resilience, philanthropy, and violence prevention. Learning she was expecting also shifted VandenBerg’s priorities, even though representing Canada at Miss Universe had been a dream for more than a decade. VandenBerg said she and Hernandez had discussed the possibility of pregnancy, and because she was not using birth control, she felt prepared to welcome a baby if it happened.