9 Biggest Beauty Pageant Scandals Ever (VIDEO)

Miss Teen USA and Miss USA are airing live on The CW this week — at 8/7c on Thursday, August 1, and Sunday, August 4, respectively — during a tenuous era for beauty pageants.

The CW announced an exclusive multi-year deal to air Miss USA and Miss Teen USA this April, and just days later, the 2023 winners of both pageants gave up their crowns in protest of alleged mistreatment in the organization. After that bombshell, The CW started “evaluating its relationship with both pageants,” as the network said in a statement. Brad Schwartz, The CW’s programming exec, told USA Today that the network was “very, very concerned” about the allegations.

“Obviously, we don’t condone bullying in any way, shape, or form. We’re taking it very seriously and gathering information; we don’t want to act hastily or improperly,” Schwartz added. “We want to support the women, but obviously, we have a lot of questions about the organization.”

Rival pageant Miss America isn’t immune to controversy either. Below, see we’ve selected the nine most crown-tarnishing scandals from the beauty pageant world.

1984: Vanessa Williams ends her reign in scandal (and Miss America would later apologize).

Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams became the first Black winner of Miss America when she won the 1984 pageant, but she resigned months later after Penthouse published nude photos of her. Williams said she had never consented to the photos getting published, but Penthouse’s publisher claimed it had an obligation to the magazine’s readers to run the pics, according to The New York Times.

At the Miss America pageant in 2016, then-Miss America CEO Sam Haskell — more on him later — apologized to Williams for the organization’s treatment: “I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be,” Haskell told her.

1997: Donald Trump fat-shames Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

As a former owner of the Miss Universe Organization, Donald Trump plays into multiple pageant controversies. Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado, a Venezuelan woman, told The Washington Post in 2016 that Trump disparaged her as “Miss Piggy,” “Miss Housekeeper,” and “Miss Housekeeping” after her win.

And in a 1997 interview with Howard Stern uncovered by BuzzFeed News, Trump called Machado an “eating machine” who “ate a lot of everything,”

“Now, 20 years later, I cannot believe that piece of s*** could possibly be president,” Machado told the Post. “It was a nightmare I wouldn’t want my daughter or any other little girl in this country to ever, ever encounter.”

2009: Carrie Prejean says marriage “should be between a man and a woman.”

During a Q&A at the Miss USA 2009 pageant, contestant Carrie Prejean said on stage that it’s “great” that Americans “can choose same-sex marriage or opposite [sic] marriage” but said that she believed “marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

Perez Hilton, one of the judges at the pageant that year, later said Prejean lost the crown because of that response. Less than two months after that flap, Trump stripped Prejean of her Miss California USA crown amid complaints from pageant organizers that she was uncooperative and not meeting her contractual obligations, according to CNN.

2017: Miss America CEO Sam Haskell resigns over offensive emails.

In 2017, Haskell resigned from his post — along with then-president Josh Randle and then-chairperson Lynn Weidner — after emails published by HuffPost showed him laughing over a profanely misogynistic characterization of former winners and, in other messages, fat-shaming and slut-shaming Miss America 2013 Mallory Hagan.

“My hope is that this story that broke will bring light to the type of behavior that’s been in the leadership of the Miss America Organization and really help us put in place some people who care and who embody the mission of Miss America,” Hagan said at the time, per The New York Times.

2018: Ramsey Carpenter-Bearse is arrested over interactions with a minor.

In 2018, Miss Kentucky 2014 Ramsey Carpenter-Bearse was arrested and charged with distributing obscene materials to a minor, as prosecutors accused her of sending obscene photographs of herself to a 15-year-old former student. She pleaded guilty in 2019 to a charge of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct, was sentenced to two years in prison, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life, according to People.

2016: Brandi Weaver-Gates gets prison time for faking cancer.

Former Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International winner Brandi Weaver-Gates was sentenced to two to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to multiple charges of theft by deception and receiving stolen property — after she admitted to raising over $30,000 and defrauding 150 people in a lie about having cancer — according to CNN.

Additionally, Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International revoked Weaver-Gates’ title and demanded that she return her crown and sash. “When you deceive the public and take people’s money that is under the pretense of fraud, we will not tolerate those actions,” pageant organizers said in a statement.

2016: Donald Trump is accused of walking into Miss Teen USA beauty pageant dressing room.

In 2016, BuzzFeed News reported that five 1997 Miss Teen USA contestants recalled Trump walking into the dressing room at their beauty pageant.

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” former Miss Vermont Teen USA Mariah Billado told the site. Billado added that Trump said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”

Those accusations came shortly after CNN uncovered audio of Trump bragging to radio host Howard Stern that he had seen contestants nude backstage at his beauty pageants. “You see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that,” Trump told Stern, per CNN.

2022: Rigging accusations and a sexual harassment allegation rock Miss USA.

Many of the contestants who lost the Miss USA 2022 crown to Miss Texas USA R’Bonney Gabriel accused the pageant of rigging the competition.

“A lot of the girls felt like it was the organization’s plan from the beginning for R’Bonney to win, no matter who else was competing,” Miss Missouri USA Mikala McGhee told Business Insider at the time.

After a town hall with contestants, the Miss Universe Organization suspended then-Miss USA president Crystle Stewart. After a third-party investigation, the organization said it had found the rigging allegations were “false” but said it was “unable to reach an agreement” to continue working with Stewart and her company, Miss Brand, Business Insider reported.

Around the same time, the Miss Universe Organization told BI it had received multiple allegations that Max Sebrechts, who was married to Stewart and working as a Miss USA vice president at the time, had sexually harassed former contestants.

“The Miss USA franchisee, Miss Brand, removed the employee from its organization in January 2022 and new protocols and processes were established and put in place,” the organization said in a statement.

2024: Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava resign, alleging mistreatment.

In May 2024, Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava resigned within two days of each other. And in Voigt’s announcement on Instagram, the first letters from the first 11 sentences spell out “I AM SILENCED.”

NBC News obtained a copy of Voigt’s resignation letter, in which the pageant queen said that “there is a toxic work environment within the Miss USA organization that, at best, is poor management and, at worst, is bullying and harassment.”

Later that month, Jackeline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava, the mothers of the two queens, said on Good Morning America that the Miss USA organization mistreated their daughters. “The job of their dreams turned out to be a nightmare,” Barbara said. “They were ill-treated, abused, bullied, and cornered.”

Miss USA CEO and President Laylah Rose said in a statement that she “take[s] these allegations seriously” and that “the well-being of all individuals associated with Miss USA” was her top priority, per USA Today.