From Miss Teen USA to Miss Universe, from Miss World Singapore to Mrs World Sri Lanka, beauty pageants are not just about glamour and glittering sequined costumes.
Heavy is the head that wears the diamante crown, which sometimes gets snatched away. Other times, scandals rock the pageant stage.
Here are five memorable beauty queen controversies.
1 CROWNING GORY
The latest controversy on the beauty pageant circuit took place earlier this month, when last year’s winner of Mrs World, a beauty pageant for married women, was forced to give up her crown after she snatched one off the head of the 2021 winner of Mrs Sri Lanka World.
The reason for the audacious move? She claimed that the winner was divorced, which is a violation of the contest rules.
Ms Pushpika de Silva, 31, had just been crowned Mrs Sri Lanka World in Colombo, Sri Lanka, when Ms Caroline Jurie, 28, the 2020 Mrs World winner, took the stage and announced that “there is a rule you have to be married and not divorced”.
She added: “So I’m taking my first step saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up.”
Ms de Silva subsequently lodged a police report against Ms Jurie and Sri Lankan model Chula Padmendra, who was on stage at the time, alleging that she had sustained injuries to her skull. Ms Jurie and Ms Padmendra were arrested, then released on bail.
Ms Jurie, who is Sri Lankan, remained defiant even after relinquishing her crown and posted a video on Instagram that stated she “only wanted a fair…
