‘Mrs. Sri Lanka’ pageant controversy erupts after former title holder snatches winner’s crown

Controversy erupted on the Mrs. Sri Lanka magnificence pageant on Sunday, when a former title holder took the crown off the winner’s head and falsely claimed she was a divorcee and due to this fact ineligible to participate.

Pushpika De Silva was named the competitors winner to applause and cheers from spectators within the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. Video footage from the occasion confirmed organizers inserting the winners’ sash round De Silva and the crown on her head.

Shortly afterward, the pageant’s 2019 winner and Mrs. World 2020, Caroline Jurie, took to the stage and picked up the microphone. “I have a small request,” she stated. “As for the Mrs. World Inc., there’s a rule that you’ll have to be married, and not divorced. So, I’m taking my first step saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up.”

Jurie then turned to a shocked De Silva, forcefully took the crown off her head and positioned it on the primary runner-up, who broke into tears and thanked the judges as De Silva walked away.

The Mrs. World sequence is a global magnificence pageant for married girls, based in 1984. The winners of every nation’s title advance to the Mrs. World competitors to face off towards one another. Under the principles of the pageant, contestants have to be “married as of the date of entry.”

After the incident, organizers declared De Silva the official winner of the pageant, and stated in a press release that contestants who had been “legally married” had been allowed to compete.

“We are deeply disturbed and sincerely regret the behavior of our current title holder, Mrs. Caroline Jurie, Mrs. World 2020, at the crowning,” the assertion stated, including the director of the Mrs. Sri Lanka pageant can be asking Jurie to apologize.

“Let it be known, Mrs. World Inc. does not sit in moral judgment,” the organizers’ assertion stated. “If the delegate sent by Mrs. Sri Lanka-World to compete in the international competition is legally married she will be accepted.”

NCS has reached out to the organizers, De Silva, and Jurie for remark.

The guidelines have been criticized earlier than as being outdated and limiting, with some urging organizers to alter the rules.

There have been a number of cases the place a contestant has been disqualified or winners dethroned after organizers discovered they’d lied about their marriages.