She grew up in a farming family and her father, BP Greyling, has appeared in television programs about the success of his vast agriculture business.

Yet her family has also been touched by turmoil in recent years, and friends of the new couple have reportedly claimed that shared personal tragedies have brought them closer.

Her family made the headlines in 2022 when a guest died at her brother Ghini Greyling’s stag party.

Willem Kruger disappeared at the event at Henbase Lodge, Morgenzon, and was found dead days later in the Vaal River.

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The incident was at first considered an accident, but police later launched a murder investigation after announcing they were “now more convinced that there was foul play”. The case is still unresolved.

Meanwhile, Steenkamp’s family have been quick to comment on Pistorius’ new relationship.

Her mother, June, 78, expressed concern that he might still be a danger to women, despite having served his prison sentence.

She said: “I don’t understand how she doesn’t see a red flag about him because he has not lost his temper problem.

“He was supposed to be under anger management when he was in jail and at one stage I stopped him coming out because I was annoyed that he wasn’t having treatment.”

Steenkamp’s sister, Simone, added: “I have nothing against her, but will warn her to sleep with one eye open. He has inside him the potential to do again what he did to Reeva and I don’t want that ever repeated.

“I am just so shocked he has chosen a woman that looks so like my Reeva. I can’t help thinking that having got rid of one Reeva he has gone out and got another,” she said.

Pistorius was at the top of the world in 2013 before, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, he fired four shots through his bedroom toilet door killing Steenkamp, who was inside.

The previous year he had competed at the London Olympics on his customised carbon fibre prostheses against the world’s fastest able-bodied athletes.

Feted at home, he was soon going out with Reeva Steenkamp, a model and television personality, who was the face of an anti-bullying campaign.

Yet their gilded life of red carpet events ended after only three months, when he opened fire in his Pretoria home with his 9mm pistol.

Prosecutors alleged Steenkamp, then aged 29, was killed while hiding in the toilet after a heated row.

Pistorius, the only witness, claimed it was a terrible accident: he was unaware his girlfriend had got up to go to the lavatory and he had mistaken her for a dangerous intruder behind the door.

He was first convicted of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to manslaughter.

That was overruled by South Africa’s supreme court, which judged that even if Pistorius believed he was shooting at an intruder, he must have reasonably foreseen that the person behind the door would die.

As such he was guilty of murder under the principle of dolus eventualis, an obscure legal term which quickly entered South African vocabulary, referencing a person’s intent behind their actions. He was jailed for 13 years and five months, taking into account time already served.

Since he was freed on parole at the start of this year, he has been trying to rebuild his life in a country where at the time of his trial, many felt betrayed by a man who had been a unifying national hero.

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Until now he has largely managed to keep out of the papers and keep a low profile.

A source said: “He is trying to rebuild his life in a low-key way and avoids bars and restaurants and the general public and is flying under the radar.

“He is slowly trying to reintegrate into society but that is being done through families that his family have been close to for decades.”

It has been clear from the start that the family which always stood by him would be the bedrock of his post-prison life and any attempt at rehabilitation.

Since his release, he has been living under strict parole conditions with his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, in the upmarket Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof and doing volunteer work at a Dutch Reformed Church.

Then late last week, on the same day news of Pistorius’ new relationship was disclosed, his father Henke gave an interview saying he was looking forward to a family Christmas including his middle child for the first time in more than a decade.

He said: “When I saw him a week ago, it was clear that he had regained the wonderful spontaneity and authenticity of the old Oscar.

He went on: “He’s a great man. He’s had experiences that most people will never have in their lives, and I’m talking about the highs and the lows. I know, as a father, that he will experience the joy of highs in his life again.”

Meanwhile, Steenkamp’s mother will spend another Christmas without her daughter.

She said at the weekend: “It’s not painful for me that he’s with this young woman – I’m just worried about her.”

The Telegraph, London