The resigned Miss USA and Miss Teen USA may allegedly be silenced from speaking out about the nightmares they faced in their crowns, but their mommas? They won’t be! The matriarchs have now gone into full momma bear mode and are spilling about the organization’s workplace environment!
As you know, Noelia Voigt and UmaSofia Srivastava shocked the world when they stepped down from their roles last week — months before their reign was over. And what added to the shock? Their resignations happened within days of each other! Noelia resigned for mental health reasons. Meanwhile, UmaSofia quit because her values no longer aligned with the organization. But it looks like there’s more behind their motivations!
Reports soon came out claiming the two women allegedly were bullied and harassed by Miss USA CEO and President Laylah Rose, resulting in them giving up their crowns early. Noelia has since been replaced by runner-up, Miss Hawaii Savannah Gankiewicz. A replacement for UmaSofia has been harder to find. The 2023 Miss Teen USA runner-up, Stephanie Skinner, declined the offer.
Related: Shanna Moakler Has Entered The Miss USA Chat! Her Side Of The Drama!
Sadly, Noelia and UmaSofia can’t further open up about their experiences with the Miss USA organization as they are still under a very strict NDA. But their mothers will not be silenced! Jackeline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava sat down with Good Morning America on Tuesday to discuss why their daughters’ stepped away from their dream jobs — and they made some concerning allegations! Barbara didn’t hold back from the start about how much of a “nightmare” it was for the girls to work under the organization, saying:
“I want to make [it] clear, it’s not about what they can get, the prizes… it’s about how they were ill-treated, abused, bullied, and cornered. The job of their dreams turned out to be a nightmare.”
“Ill-treated, abused, bullied, and cornered”?! OMG! Barbara claimed UmaSofia faced a ton of bullying by the Miss Teen USA management and thus missed out on opportunities. While the mom of the 17-year-old pageant queen did not go into additional details about her alleged mistreatment, she did share that her daughter’s social media accounts were under surveillance and controlled by management. As for Noelia? She had enough of the job after a disturbing incident during a Christmas parade. Her Jackeline recalled:
“I saw Noellia so stressed out, and I said, ‘What happened?’ And she said, ‘Mom, get in the car, get in the car.’ When I got in the car, I said, ‘What happened?’ Because I know [a man] said something but I couldn’t get it. [The man] told Noelia, ‘Are you into old [men] with money?’ And made Noelia very, very uncomfortable.”
When Noelia brought up the troubling matter to the organization, their reaction was allegedly terrible — to say the least! In her resignation letter obtained by GMA, the 24-year-old model said she “was made to feel unsafe at events without an effective handler, and this culminated in being sexually harassed.” She then claimed Laylah told her in response that the organization was unable to prevent these kinds of things from happening to a titleholder during public events. Soo, essentially saying sexual harassment comes with the job?? What the actual f**k. Not the way to handle the situation — at all! Understandably, both Noelia and her mom were disappointed by the response from Miss USA. Jackeline said:
“[Not] even, ‘I’m sorry that you went through that?’ [Noelia] was so upset. This is not what she worked so hard for.”
So Noelia left. Once she resigned, UmaSofia knew she needed to do so as well. Barbara added:
“When she saw that they were tying [in] Noellia’s mental health [to her resignation], she said, ‘I cannot stand for this. I need to stand up [for] Noelia.’”
What these girls allegedly experienced is awful. Oof. Now both moms called for Laylah to quit as president of the Miss USA organization and for the pageant to “come out and speak to us [and] apologize or clean this mess.” They also warned future contestants and their parents to rethink joining the pageants in light of what their daughters’ went through. Jackeline expressed:
“Look at what happened to Noelia and UmaSofia. So really pay attention. We don’t want them to go through this right now. It’s not the right time to participate. We just don’t want these families and these girls to go through what we went through.”
After hearing what allegedly happened to Noelia and UmaSofia, we wouldn’t be surprised if other pageant queens had reservations about competing in Miss USA or Miss Teen USA now. Watch their interview (below):
Laylah has not addressed the accusations yet. However, the organization issued a statement to ABC News, saying:
“We are committed to fostering a healthy, communicative and supportive environment for all contestants, state titleholders, national titleholders and staff.”
But not fully “committed” enough or at all, according to Jackeline and Barbara! Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below.
[Image via Inside Edition/ABC4 Utah/Good Morning America/YouTube]
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