When sexy 26-year-old Ivonne Armant submitted her photos to Playboy, we were more than willing to feature the curvy Latina beauty. Imagine our surprise when Armant later revealed that her grandfather is world-famous operatic tenor Placido Domingo. "I didn't tell anyone until after my pictures were accepted," she says. "I got it on my own, and I like that." Armant's father, José Domingo, was married to her mother for two years, and Armant herself didn't discover the truth about her heritage until she was 15 (her mother had remarried a man who became the only father Armant ever knew). True to her creative genes, Armant starred in three Mexican soap operas and started a clothing boutique (she designed her own fashions) before deciding to move to Los Angeles. When she had exhausted her savings and was contemplating a move back to Mexico City, Armant appealed to her grandfather to help her pay for acting lessons, and he obliged. Despite his monthly checks, however, their relationship remains largely one between strangers. "Before I knew he was my grandfather I always admired him," says Armant. "I think he's fantastic and I would like to have a closer relationship with him someday."
Armant's independent spirit and will to forge ahead likely stem from her trauma at the age of 15 when she passed out at a gathering with friends and was pronounced dead in the emergency room. "I was completely dead for something like ten minutes," she says. "I had a vision. I saw my body in the hospital, my friends crying and another friend trying to call my parents. But I came back to life! Since then, I have premonitions, and weird things happen to me all the time." A lesser woman might have toned down her lifestyle after "crossing over," but Ivonne developed a fondness for thrill seeking. "I love to live on the edge--I love speed." You might find her swimming, water-skiing or dancing, but she really wants to skydive and race cars. Right now her focus is on acting classes and auditioning. She has even launched her own website, ivonnearmant.com, which she works on regularly. "I want people to see who I am, what I have done, what I want to do," says the self-proclaimed Latina powerhouse. "I read all my fan-club e-mail personally and, right now, I answer it all. Life is short, and I really have to do what I want to do." We wouldn't dream of stopping her.
