The ABC News documentary exposes many dark corners of the Miss Universe organization, causing many people to question the 73-year-old beauty pageant.
Miss Universe 2024 has just found a new owner for the crown, the beauty Victoria Kjær Theilvig, 21 years old, from Denmark. Although there was no controversy about the final result, Miss Universe was still immersed in noise.
For the first time in more than a decade, the Miss Universe USA beauty representative failed to make it to the semifinals. The scandals from the beginning to the end of the season have put Miss Universe in crisis.
After the Miss Universe 2024 finals, the latest episode of ABC News’ Impact x Nightline aired on November 21, exposing many dark sides of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO). Attracting beauty fans around the world was the title of the documentary: “Cracks in the Crown: Miss Universe in Crisis?”.
The scandals range from restrictive contracts that contestants must sign to participate in the competition, to legal troubles for co-owners and the obvious decline in quality of the Miss Universe beauty pageant.
The dark side of the Miss Universe organization
Rafa Delfin – a loyal fan and founder of the blog Critical Beauty – shared in a video that the qualifying round of the competition on November 14 was “a complete disaster”.
He said this year’s pageant lacked “the magic of Miss Universe that many of us have seen.” The blogger pointed to the short screen time of the 125 contestants. “Many of the 125 girls spent 6 months to 1 year preparing, but only got 1-2 seconds on stage. This is clearly a pure business, the more countries participate, the more money they make. I think this year they sacrificed quality for quantity. That left fans disappointed and angry.”
Questions about the ethics of the current leadership of the Miss Universe organization were also mentioned in the report. A few weeks before the pageant, Thai billionaire Anne Jakrajutatip and former president of the Miss Venezuela Organization Osmel Sousa livestreamed and revealed the Top 30 contestants according to their personal preferences.
The duo also mocked Miss Lebanon, Nada Koussa, in a separate video that appeared on Instagram, prompting the beauty to suddenly withdraw from the competition. Lebanon’s Ministry of Tourism demanded an apology from the Miss Universe organization.
After the apology, Koussa returned to the competition and the new video was taken down. “It’s a fragile ecosystem and it’s based on trust. If you lose trust, it’s a big problem for a lot of women,” said Annemarie Pisano, former press director for the Miss Universe organization.
Speaking about the loosening of restrictions on age, gender and marital status of contestants, Ms. Jakrajutatip caused a big controversy with her statement: “Transgender women, married women, divorced women… can compete but they can’t win. We just put that policy in place, so you can have social integration.”
Defaulting on money, owing employees salaries
Claudia Englehart – former social media director of the Miss Universe organization – revealed the terrible working environment after only 2 weeks on the job. Claudia described: “Leaders were demeaning, harshly criticizing, and hurting others”. Claudia also accused Layla Rose – president of Miss USA – of controlling employees, taking control of Miss USA’s official Instagram account, blocking followers, posting and commenting under the name of the beauty queen.
More seriously, many prominent faces in the beauty industry spoke up to denounce the Venezuelan beauty queen boss – Osmel Sousa – currently an advisor to the president of Miss Universe. The accusations that Osmel Sousa specialized in brokering beauty pageants for politicians were dug up again.
Omar Castorino Montanaro, a Paraguayan businessman, spoke up about being defaulted on money and made empty promises by the Miss Universe organization. Specifically, the MUO organization received a $500,000 deposit to host the 2025 edition, but then removed Paraguay from the list and “disappeared”.
In addition to the toxic work environment, this world-famous beauty organization also faces allegations of unpaid wages. Rodrigo Goytortua, the former CEO of Miss Universe Mexico, filed a lawsuit against the co-owner of the Miss Universe organization, Raul Rocha Cantu, alleging that Rocha Cantu did not pay him for 7 months of work.
After the report was published by ABC News, the Miss Universe organization issued a press release on its website, strongly denying all allegations. At the same time, the announcement also affirmed that they remain steadfast in their mission to promote unity, celebrate diversity and fight for women’s empowerment.
