MISS Universe’s grandparents have spoken out about how proud they are of the young winner.

Stefanía Fernández, who is half-Galician, half-Venezuelan, has won the hard-fought contest after taking the Miss Venezuela crown.

Her grandma Celia Acuña and granddad Emilio Fernández, from Nigrán (Pontevedra) said they were waiting by the telephone and biting their nails awaiting the results of the contest on the TV.

They were finally called from the Bahamas and from Venezuela in the early hours of the morning, having been in constant contact with their son, Stefanía’s father.

Celia reveals that the entire family were gathered in her lounge between 02.00hrs and 04.00hrs yesterday morning waiting for the results.

Grandma and Granddad say the young lady has been waiting to win Miss Universe all her life, it having been her ‘vocation since earliest childhood’.

“As a little girl, she was always very coquettish, very vain, always wanting to model everything,” Celia says.

“She would put on her mum’s dresses and shoes and parade in front of the mirror as though she was on a catwalk, and always told her dad she was going to become Miss World. Always!”

Yesterday, Stefanía travelled to New York to see the apartment she will live in during her year’s reign as Miss Universe, and to find out what work she will have to do.

“Until she’s settled somewhere, it’s very hard to speak to her on the telephone,” say her grandparents, but they reveal that she and her parents recently spent three months in Galicia visiting them and seeing some of the region’s highlights, including the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.