Rice, the young woman at the center of the scandal, was born in Delacroix, LA. She lived in Tallahassee, FL until she was 13, when her family moved to Irmo, SC. From there she went on to attend the University of South Carolina where she was a cheerleader, majored in biology, and graduated magna cum laude in 1980. Soon after Rice was crowned Miss South Carolina World and moved to New York to pursue a modeling and acting career before eventually relocating to Miami. There she landed small parts on TV shows including Miami Vice and One Life to Live.