Oscar Pistorius’s New Life and the Steenkamps’ Ongoing Pain

Oscar Pistorius’s New Life and the Steenkamps’ Ongoing Pain

Oscar Pistorius’s New Life and the Steenkamps’ Ongoing Pain

In South Africa, Oscar Pistorius, once celebrated worldwide as the “Blade Runner,” is living a life that feels worlds away from the tragedy that defined him. The former Paralympian, convicted of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013, has been seen openly dining with his new partner, Rita Greyling. Their romance, described by witnesses as affectionate and intense, has been unfolding in upscale places where his presence once would have seemed unimaginable. Friends say Pistorius appears besotted, openly holding hands and sharing tender moments with Rita, a 33-year-old management consultant and model who, strikingly, bears a resemblance to Reeva herself.

Since his release on parole in January 2024, Pistorius has been slowly rebuilding his life. He now lives in a cottage on his uncle’s property in Pretoria, volunteers at a local church, and has even returned to competitive sport, completing an Ironman triathlon earlier this year. Privately, he is said to be eager to marry and start a family with Rita, who comes from one of South Africa’s wealthiest farming dynasties. For Pistorius, life appears to be shifting toward stability and hope for the future.

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But while he steps into a new chapter, the past remains unbearably heavy for Reeva’s family. Her mother, June Steenkamp, is critically ill in hospital after suffering a severe stroke three weeks ago. Friends reveal that she struggles to speak, no longer recognizes people, and may not even remember her daughter. The news is devastating given that June, since Reeva’s death, had dedicated her life to becoming her daughter’s voice, campaigning against violence and abuse through the Reeva Steenkamp Foundation. She had continued this work even while facing financial hardship, living modestly with her animals on a smallholding near Port Elizabeth.

June’s health crisis follows the death of her husband Barry in 2023, who had met Pistorius in prison before passing away. Barry, heartbroken and convinced Pistorius killed Reeva in a fit of rage, had sought the truth directly from him but felt it was never given. The Steenkamps’ grief, coupled with financial strain and declining health, contrasts starkly with Pistorius’s seemingly renewed life.

While he is monitored under strict parole conditions until 2029—barred from using social media, nightlife, or capitalizing on his notoriety—Pistorius has been granted the chance to start again. June, meanwhile, may never reclaim her voice fully, despite once vowing to speak for her daughter. For those close to her, it feels like a cruel twist of fate: the man who took Reeva’s life is moving forward, while the woman who lost her daughter has been left battling both illness and loss.

The story of Oscar Pistorius today is not only about a disgraced athlete finding love again. It is also about the enduring scars left behind—scars carried by a mother whose life has been shaped by grief, and who now may not even remember the daughter she once fought so fiercely to honor.

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