'I was shaped by Africa'

This week proves that our Candice Swanepoel really is the world's most desirable woman.

Just three days after making the cover of Self magazine - where she was called "hotter than hot" - the 26-year-old Victoria's Secret bombshell was yesterday unveiled as the latest Maxim magazine cover star.

The Maxim cover is a sultry close-up of Swanepoel headlined "Come Closer: Meet The Most Desirable Woman In The World".

Despite the hype that comes with being part of a Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Swanepoel suggested it's not that serious.

She told Maxim: "We all watch it together and scream. We eat popcorn and laugh at ourselves."

But don't get it wrong - she works hard for that body, and she attributes that to watching her father toiling at their family farm in Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal.

She told Self that despite often being expected to be on set by 5am for 12-hour shoots, she still had to make time for her work-outs.

"I saw my dad wake up at four every morning to milk the cows. I'd put on my overalls and gumboots and follow him around," she said.

"Growing up surrounded by so much life and death and realness shaped my personality. Africa is not for wussies."

She said she had been told she needed to lose weight, which contradicted the people "criticising me for being too thin".

The criticism hurt her so much she was ready to quit modelling at the age of 17 - until her agent told her Victoria's Secret was calling.

She told Maxim she had to overcome shyness to make it in the industry.

"I don't see myself the way other people see me. With all the right hair and make-up and people, it all becomes an art project. I look at myself in the third person, because that girl in the pictures isn't me: It's a girl I created to cope with the spotlight."

The latest copy of Maxim will hit South African shelves in May.