This is NOT a good look for the Miss Universe organization!
Late last week, Vox obtained a leaked video of a board meeting from November 2023 in which the Miss Universe co-owner, Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip, argued that diversity was just for show! Ugh! During the meeting, Anne said it would be good to include a wide range of women in a potential Miss Universe reality show — but she drew a hard line, noting, “They cannot win.” Specifically, she noted:
“The trans women, the women with husbands, divorced women … This is a communication strategy, because, you understand … they can compete but they cannot win. We just put the policy out there. Social inclusion, as people would say.”
Jeez! This is especially shocking considering Anne is a transgender woman and a mother, too!
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Later, another board member suggested:
“We can have a casting for models of all different colors, sizes, whatever. We are also looking to commercialize that kind of thing — an agency. ‘Miss Universe Model Agency.’”
Anne agreed, adding:
“We can have real size beauty, the contestant. Very big size.”
But she also agreed with another board member who said “we’ll have to control the audience” so they don’t “vote all for the big size.” Anne insisted they’d already “know who is the winner” but would include other body types and women to make the audience feel included — all so they would then go to the stores and buy Miss Universe products, she cheered:
“It’s all connected. For money!”
Wow. So f**ked up — and this only makes those rigging allegations more believable! See the shocking video HERE.
If you don’t know, Anne acquired MUO in 2022 as the CEO of JKN Global Group. But in 2023, JKN filed for bankruptcy, and this January, she sold half her shares to Mexican businessman Raúl Rocha Cantú (who was in the video but didn’t say much). The recording was shared by former CEO of Miss Universe Mexico, Rodrigo Goytortua Ortega, who was present at the meeting. He decided to leak the video after Cantú allegedly failed to pay him for his work. The clip first went viral in Asia and Latin America earlier this year, causing Anne to release a statement, saying on Facebook in February:
“The malicious edited video was out of context and used to manipulate other people which led to the public confusion, misunderstanding, misinterpretation and wrong conclusion. I hope the world would not go round by this nonsense soap opera alike. I still don’t comprehend why this man, who I was so nice to him, would like to jeopardize me and the organization while we were talking about one of the new reality show episodes not the pageantry itself. … I’m a trans woman and a mother myself who all my life fight for the gender equality rights to be where I am.”
In light of the resurfaced leak, the Miss Universe org released a statement originally dated in February, claiming the leak was part of a smear campaign. They wrote:
“In light of recent misinformation and attempts to smear the Miss Universe Organization, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the core values we have diligently defended over the years.”
The statement continued:
“The Miss Universe Organization has worked tirelessly to promote inclusion, transparency, and integrity, and we will not be swayed by unfounded allegations. We have been informed of malicious attempts by certain individuals to tarnish the reputation of our organization by spreading false accusations.”
But are they really false accusations? The board members very explicitly said all this themselves on tape!!!
As Perezcious readers know, this disturbing look into the org comes after both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA resigned from their roles months early amid bullying and harassment allegations. Unfortunately, the girls have been barred from sharing their stories due to strict NDAs, which former Miss USA Noelia Voigt slammed in a post on Instagram a day after this aforementioned video was leaked. She shared:
“I am constrained by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and would like to emphatically assert that, following the unauthorized circulation of my resignation letter, [Miss USA President and CEO] Laylah Roses‘ assertions in her recent statement that contradict my experience after three weeks of unanswered resignation notification are unequivocally inaccurate. I strongly encourage her to waive our NDA to enable me to speak.”
In the “open letter,” Laylah said in part:
“We are very disappointed to hear the recent false allegations made by individuals speaking on behalf of our former titleholder. We cannot and will not address every falsehood, but I will address a few here. The allegations of sexual harassment, toxic environment and bullying are not true.”
But judging from this leaked meeting and what others have said on behalf of Noelia and the former Miss Teen USA, UmaSofia Srivastava, it seems like there may be some deeply disturbing problems behind the scenes… Thoughts? Let us know (below).
To learn more about how you can help the LGBTQ+ community, check out https://www.glaad.org/.
To learn more about civil rights issues, check out https://www.splcenter.org/.
[Image via MEGA/WENN & Miss USA/YouTube & Noelia Voigt/UmaSofia Srivastava/Instagram]
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