Beauty Pageants Scandals and Controversies

02 / 14

Miss Universe 2002 Oxana Fedorova Dethroned After Crowning

Beauty queens resigning and dethroning is not something that is exclusive. But the dethroning of Miss Universe 2002 Oxana Fedorova from Russia is quite a mystery. Fedorova became the first Miss Russia to win the Miss Universe title, but soon after her crowning, rumours spread that she was pregnant. Nobody knows how much truth the rumour holds. But Fedorova was dethroned four months later and first runner-up Justine Pasek of Panama took over the Miss Universe title. However, she stated that she voluntarily gave up her crown for personal reasons, mainly because she wanted to finish her law degree.

03 / 14

Miss World 1974 Helen Morgan resigning for being a Mom

UK’s Helen Morgan became the first Miss World titleholder to officially resign from the title. It was Miss World 1974, when Helen Morgan from UK was announced the winner. But within four days of her crowning, she resigned from the tittle and the crown on the grounds that she has a son. Anneline Kriel of South Africa was crowned the new Miss World 1974 after Morgan’s resignation.

04 / 14

Linor Abargil Miss World 1998 Sexual Asault Controversy

Israel's Linor Abargil who was crowned Miss World 1998, revealed after few days after the competition that she was raped at knifepoint by her travel agent, Uri Shlomo Nur, in Milan, Italy months before the pageant. With strong evidence found, the travel agent was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Since then, Linor has become a global advocate in the fight against sexual violence and she also called other women to follow her example.

05 / 14

Miss World Honduras 2014 Maria Jose Alvarado Murder Mystery

Maria Jose Alvarado, Miss World Honduras 2014 was found murdered just few days before she was supposed to fly off to London to compete in Miss World 2014 pageant in London. Maria and her sister Sofia were seen leaving a local party and getting into a vehicle without a license plate. She and her sister Sofia Trinidad were found murdered and then buried in the village of Cablotales. As a tribute to the 19 year old beauty queen, Miss Honduras organization decided not to replace Maria and therefore officially withdrew from the contest that year

06 / 14

Kaci Fennell Miss Universe Jamaica 2014 Controversy

While the victory of Paulina Vega as Miss Universe 2014 was indisputable and undeniably very deserving, there were some serious questions about the low placement of Jamaica. After Kaci’s impressive answers during the Q&A round, she made herself noticeable among the audiences, and everyone expected her to be positioned on Top 2. When Kaci was announced as the fourth runner up, there was a few seconds of awkwardness among the crowd, followed by disappointment and booed response. Crowd and fans even took on to twitter and other SNS to show their anger and disappointment.

07 / 14

Alicia Machado Miss Universe 1996 Weight Gain COntroversy

Alicia Machado from Venezuela who was crowned Miss Universe 1996, made headlines during her reign when it was reported that she has gained weight. In respond to the news, when the MU organization considered her of replacing with the first runner-up Taryn Mansell of Aruba, the move by the organization was heavily criticized by fans all over the world. Machado’s pictures of her working out to lose weight floated on all newspapers and the pressure created by the organizers was heavily criticized.

08 / 14

Ariana Miyamoto Miss Universe Japan 2015 Non-Japanese appearance

Post the crowning of Ariana Miyamoto Miss Universe Japan 2015, her non-japanese looks provoked uproar among the social networking sites all over the world. Ariana was born and brought up in Nagasaki to a Japanese mother and an African-American father and speaks Japanese as her first language. However, many beauty pageant fans found it difficult to gulp it in, as according to them the winner should have been someone who is entirely Japanese. Ever since her crowning, the beauty has been facing all sorts of ridicule and criticism.

09 / 14

Andjelka Tomasevic Miss Universe Serbia 2014 Controversial Statements

After Paulina Vega got crowned as Miss Universe 2014, the pageant went through quite a lot of criticism and disapproval. One of the contestants, Andjelka from Serbia made some strong statement on her SNS page calling the Miss Universe 2014 pageant a political manifestation and that the pageant abides by “money makes the world go round perspective”. Andjelka posted, “Hard work and sincere approach are not respected. I hope this would change and make many girls happy in the future. I am not writing this because I am angry. This was pretty educational experience for me, very useful in my future work. Still, there were great things that made me feel fantastic and these I want to remember. Best wishes!”

10 / 14

Jenna Talackova Miss Universe Canada 2012 Transgender Debate

The controversy raised in Miss Universe Canada 2012 when Jenna Talackova, a transgender contestant was disqualified from the competition on the grounds that she is not a “naturally born female”. This statement of the organization led to huge criticism by audience and fans. Hence they eventually let her participate. Although Talackova made it till Top 12 and didn’t win, she left a mark of her own for breaking gender stereotypes and she is now one of the most successful transgender models in the world.

11 / 14

Pimbongkod Chankaew Miss Universe Thailand 2014 Comments on MUO 2014

Pimbongkod Miss Universe Thailand 2014 released a controversial statement through a video, declaring that the Miss Universe Organisation showed favouritism, and that the organization was very unprofessional. She claimed of being a victim to favouritism and vividly stated that the Miss Universe 2014 winner was pre decided. Right after the video was uploaded on YouTube, it went viral and engrossed annotations and remarks from people all over the internet.

12 / 14

Leona Gage Miss USA 1957 Age Controversy

Leona Gage was declared Miss USA 1957 on July 18’ 1957. She had not worn her tiara for more than 24 hours before pageant officials stripped her of the title. She was dethroned just one day after her winning the contest when her mother-in-law revealed that she was married with two children and that her real age was 18 and not 21, which was written on the application.

13 / 14

Reina Hispanoamericana 2008 Laura Elena Zuniga Huizar dethroned for being arrested for drugs

Laura Elena Zúñiga Huizar was a Mexican model and beauty queen, at the center of a drug trafficking scandal in December 2008. On 30th October 2008 she participated in Reina Hispanoamericana (Hispanic-American Queen) representing Mexico in Santa Cruz, Bolivia bringing the title to Mexico for the first time. On 22nd December 2008, Laura Zuñiga was arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco, along with seven men who allegedly carried US$53,000 in cash, two AR-15 rifles, three handguns, 633 cartridges of different calibers, and 16 cellphones. The Nuestra Belleza Mexico organization released a statement saying it had no knowledge of Zuñiga's alleged narco-trafficking ties and that it would decide pending an investigation whether or not to let her keep her crown. On 25th December 2008, a second statement was released announcing that Zuñiga had been stripped of her title as Miss Mexico International 2009. Her successor, Anagabriela Espinoza, was awarded the crown. On 26th December 2008, she was dethroned as Reina Hispanoamericana 2008 and replaced by Vivian Noronha Cia from Brazil. The critically acclaimed 2011 film Miss Bala (Miss Bullet) is loosely based on Zúñiga and her involvement in the events of December 2008.

14 / 14

Binibining Pilipinas 2008 Janina San Miguel forced to resign due to unprofessional behaviour

Janina San Miguel was crowned Binibining Pilipinas 2008 on 8th March 2019 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila. She gained notoriety for her performance in the pageant's question and answer portion, where she lost her composure and gave an unfocused and rambling response with a thick accent. It was announced on 30th September 2019 that Janina San Miguel had resigned her position of Binibining Pilipinas World due to the untimely demise of her grandfather, among other personal reasons. Her resignation came 6 1⁄2 months after winning the title, and just 2 1⁄2 months before the scheduled Miss World pageant. The announcement of her resignation was met with speculation that San Miguel had been forced by Binibining Pilipinas pageant organizers to relinquish her title due to a lack of professionalism during preparatory training sessions, which strained the patience of her mentors and superiors.