Miss Universe pageant accused of being rigged after Miss USA wins title
The Miss Universe beauty pageant has been accused of hosting a rigged competition after Miss USA won the top prize.
The winner this year was Miss USA winner R'Bonney Gabriel, but her victory has been disputed by some who don't think the competition was entirely fair - something the Miss Universe Organisation has strongly denied.
According to TMZ, people are criticising Anne Jakrajutatip, the chief executive of JKN Global Group which owns the Miss Universe and Miss USA competitions.
This year's Miss Universe was held in the USA as well, which has lead to some people pointing accusatory fingers at Miss Universe and trying to claim it was set up to hand the win to an American.
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Unhappy people have gone online to claim that certain contestants were 'robbed', with plenty of support for Miss Universe runner-up Amanda Dudamel of Venezuela.
Plenty called her 'the real winner of the night' and said they thought she had come across far better, while angrier viewers declared 'Miss Universe was FKN RIGGED'.
Others who thought the competition was 'rigged' were so stunned that they wondered 'what the f**k was that'
Lots of people shared pictures of Steve Harvey, who notoriously incorrectly announced Ariadna Gutiérrez of Colombia as the winner in 2015, only for them come back onto the stage a few minutes later to tell everyone that actually Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines had won.
In response to accusations of rigging, the Miss Universe Organization described people's claims as 'absurd' and pointed towards the ceremony being 'the first time a trans woman addressed fans as the owner of Miss Universe', as well as being 'the first time a Filipina American took the crown'.
They said in a statement to UNILAD: "The false rigging allegations are absurd and distract from the incredible milestones our organization and the delegates experienced this weekend."
"Instead of focusing on unfounded statements, we will continue to shine a light on global women’s empowerment, inclusiveness, diversity, and transformational leadership."
And this isn't the first time the pageant winner has been accused of claiming victory in a rigged competition.
When R'Bonney Gabriel won Miss USA 2022 last year, other contestants claimed that the then Miss Texas USA had benefited from 'favouritism'.
They claimed that Gabriel had received a sponsored vacation at the NIZUC resort, which sponsored the Miss USA competition.
Gabriel hit back at claims the competition had been rigged in her favour, arguing that she would 'never enter any pageant, or any competition, that I know I would win'.
Saying she had 'a lot of integrity', she said she flew herself out to the NIZUC resort and did promotional work there after winning Miss Texas USA, with the footage itself being released after her Miss USA win.
The latest Miss Universe pageant was the first in the competition's history where married women or those with children were not banned from competing.
Joe Harker