lifestyle
Published November 17, 2023, 6:30 am ET
Miss Universe’s future could be in jeopardy after the Thai conglomerate led and owned by trans activist and entrepreneur Anne Jakrajutatip announced it had filed for bankruptcy. AFP via Getty Images
The last time organizers held a Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador in 1975, riotous students staged demonstrations that eventually ended in a massacre and plunged the country into a brutal civil war.
When the pageant returns to the Central American country for its 72nd annual competition on Saturday, the future of the pageant itself could be in jeopardy – after the Thai company that owns the spectacle announced it had filed for bankruptcy.
And it’s not the only scandal surrounding Miss Universe, in which two trans competitors will take part this year.
The title will be presented by reigning beauty queen R’Bonney Gabriel, who was previously Miss USA and Miss Texas USA.
Last year there were allegations of rigging against the Miss USA beauty pageant, owned by the Miss Universe organization, as some participants suspected that the pageant may have been staged to benefit Gabriel.
“Most Miss USA contestants strongly believe that Miss Texas USA was favored and we have the evidence to prove this,” claimed Miss Montana Heather Lee O’Keefe in a TikTok video in October 2022.
Jakrajutatip called the Miss Universe Organization “my first priority in life.” Your JKN Global Group owns the trademark.AFP via Getty Images
Miss New York Heather Nunez wrote on Instagram: “We felt humiliated because we thought we had entered something with a fair chance.”
Both the Miss Universe Organization and Gabriel denied any allegations of rigging.
Meanwhile, locals in San Salvador are protesting the national government’s reported spending of $12 million in public money to host the event in a country with increasing extreme poverty.
Reigning Miss Universe and former Miss USA R’Bonney Gabriel met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. Some El Salvadorans have protested against the government spending $12 million in public money to host Saturday’s pageant.@missuniverse/Intagram
The protests are reminiscent of a demonstration in July 1975 by a group of impoverished students who criticized the then military government of strongman Arturo Armando Molina for spending $1 million on the pageant. Less than two weeks after Miss Finland Anne Marie Pohtamo was crowned Miss Universe, the country’s armed forces occupied a local university and massacred more than 100 students.
Furthermore, the group behind Miss Universe now appears to be bankrupt.
JKN Global Group, owned by transgender activist and entrepreneur Anne Jakrajutatip, bought the 2022 Miss Universe pageant for $20 million from talent agency WME-IMG, which took it over from Donald Trump. The former US president sold the brand in 2015, in the early days of his first presidential campaign, after his comments calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug dealers led to the loss of pageant sponsors and some participants.
Miss USA Noelia Voigt competed in the Miss Universe preliminary swimsuit competition earlier this week.Portal
Jakrajutatip founded JKN Global Group in 2013 as a video and content distribution company. It has since grown into a multinational conglomerate valued at nearly $260 million, with two television networks and products ranging from cosmetics to energy drinks.
But there are difficult economic times ahead. JKN’s share price has reportedly fallen more than 80% in the past year.
The company missed a payment on a $12 million loan due on September 1, according to a letter to the president of the Thai Stock Exchange.
Anne Jakrajutatip (third from left) poses with beauty queens at the Miss Universe pageant in New Orleans last year. AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, many longtime Miss Universe supporters around the world are balking at new rules that require them to compete for the rights to host beauty pageants in their own countries in order to select contestants for the global competition. Earlier this year, Unicorp in Vietnam severed ties with the Miss Universe Organization. This was followed by companies in Ghana, Belize and the Seychelles, among others.
Despite the recent challenge of the troubled event, “our universe must go on,” Jakrajutatip said in an Instagram post earlier this week.
“The Miss Universe Organization, which is just one of our many divisions, is completely clean and will continue to operate as planned,” Jakrajutatip said. “No matter what… I have always made the Miss Universe Organization my first priority in life. No matter how joyful or painful it will be.”
Miss Portugal, Marina Machete, is one of two trans women competing in the Miss Universe pageant on Saturday. @marinamachetereis/Instagram
Jakrajutatip is making history by allowing married women – from Guatemala, Colombia and Switzerland – to participate.
The Portuguese Marina Machete and Rikkie Kolle from the Netherlands – both transgender – are also among the 85 participants this year. In 2018, Angela Maria Ponce Camacho, Miss Spain, became the first trans woman to compete in a pageant and ended up winning the Miss Universe title.
“Ángela cried when it was over and told the crowd that she didn’t have to win — she just wanted the world to know that a trans woman could do it,” Jakrajutatip told Cosmopolitan last month. “I cried too.”
Rickie Valerie Kolle, Miss Netherlands, is also a trans woman participating in the Miss Universe pageant this year.Instagram / @missnederland
For 44-year-old Jakrajutatip, Ponce Camacho’s participation was a personal victory. As a boy growing up in a conservative Thai family in Bangkok, she said, she watched the pageant on television every year with her mother and sister.
“From the time I was five, I knew I was born in the wrong body,” she told the magazine.
“At home, my family insisted that I suppress any hint of femininity I felt within,” she said. “I was so ashamed that I was afraid to be myself.”
Jakrajutatip not only opens the competition to trans women like herself, but also welcomes married women, divorcees and even mothers – all new to traditional beauty pageants.Getty Images
In addition to opening the competition to women between the ages of 18 and 28 and allowing married, divorced and pregnant women to apply, the millionaire entrepreneur also counts mothers among the participants. Guatemalan mother of two Michelle Cohn will compete, as will Colombian Camila Avella, who has one child.
Organizers plan to give candidates more airtime so they can “speak as people instead of just focusing on their appearance,” Jakrajutatip said.
Additionally, she added, “There will be no more male leaders ogling delegates in the locker room.” The leadership team is made up of women, as are this year’s judges and moderators, she said.
Donald Trump, here with former Miss Universe Ximena Navarette, was once Miss Universe and boasted to Howard Stern: “I go backstage before a show and everyone gets dressed…” Getty Images
“I wanted to create something run by women, for women — not something for men to ogle at,” she said.
Trump, who also owned the Miss Universe sister pageants, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, bragged to Howard Stern about entering young women in their dressing rooms when he controlled the pageants in 2006.
“I’ll tell you the funniest thing [thing] is me going backstage before a show and everyone getting dressed,” Trump said. “There are no men anywhere to be seen, and I am allowed to go in because I am the owner of the pageant and therefore inspect it…You know, they are standing there with no clothes on. ‘Is everyone OK?’ And you see these incredible-looking women, and that’s kind of how I get away with things like that.”
Salvadoran dictator Arturo Armando Molina poses with Miss Finland, Anne Marie Pohtamo, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1975, when a student riot broke out outside the venue. Here El Salvador TVE/Facebook
Jakrajutatip vowed to revolutionize Miss Universe when she bought the franchise last year.
“Why was an organization that claimed to be about empowering women only owned by men?,” she told Cosmopolitan.
Load More…
{{#isDisplay}} {{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}} {{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}} {{/isSRVideo}}
https://nypost.com/2023/11/17/lifestyle/inside-troubled-miss-universe-pageant-as-owner-goes-bankrupt/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Copy the URL to share