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Allegations first gained traction on social media after Jasmine Bruce, a former pageant competitor, posted a video to her TikTok last week.
R’Bonney Gabriel, right, Miss Texas 2022, was named Miss USA 2022 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.Finesse Levine
Oct. 13, 2022, 6:05 PM -03 By Kaetlyn Liddy
A handful of this year’s Miss USA contestants are alleging that the organization gave preferential treatment to R’Bonney Gabriel of Texas, who made history as the first Filipina American to win the title this month.
When Gabriel’s victory was announced, Jasmine Bruce, who finished as the first runner-up in the 2021 Miss Arkansas pageant, analyzed the crowning moment in a series of TikTok videos posted last week. She noticed that some contestants appeared to leave the stage instead of congratulating the winner, something she said is unusual for the competition.
“There’s always pageants where maybe some of the girls aren’t happy with the winner — you know, everyone wants to win,” she said in an interview with NBC News. “But I’ve never seen all 50 contestants walk off stage or react the way that the contestants reacted in the background. To me, that’s very telling. These girls aren’t just upset that they didn’t win. There’s more to the story.”
The controversy over this year’s competition, which gained traction after Bruce voiced her thoughts on TikTok, has led contestants to consider what metrics are being used to award titles that purport to represent state and national ideals. Some of Gabriel’s competitors told NBC News it was not the empowering pageant they had hoped to be part of.
Miss Universe Organization ran the Miss USA competition until 2020, when The Miss Brand Corp., headed by Crystle Stewart, took over. The Miss Universe Organization said Sunday that it had decided to suspend Stewart’s leadership “immediately.”
“Miss Universe Organization will be taking over the Miss USA program while a comprehensive, third-party investigation is conducted,” it said in a statement to NBC News.
On Friday, Stewart, who is a former Miss USA and Miss Texas, said that she and her staff and pageant partners are taking the allegations “very seriously and are cooperating with the Miss Universe Organization as they investigate the allegations.”
Miss USA contestant: Gabriel’s win ‘stung’
Soon after Bruce’s video, some of Gabriel’s fellow Miss USA contestants began voicing their concerns, as well.
Ashley Ehrhart, Miss Oklahoma 2022, said it was “not a shock” to see Gabriel awarded the title.
“It stung because all week, I had thought this could go one way due to the favoritism I saw shown. However, I was still hoping and rooting for myself as a competitor … but it was no surprise,” she said in an interview.
Heather Lee O’Keefe, Miss Montana 2022, said she felt “defeated” after the winner was announced. “There was favoritism,” she said, adding that she believes the pageant is “not doing what’s best for the women who are a part of the organization.”
The contestants who spoke to NBC News did not speculate about what they think were the motivations underlying the alleged favoritism toward Gabriel or offer any reason for their suspicions. They just pointed out instances of what they described as favoritism that they saw throughout the competition.
It stung because all week, I had thought this could go one way due to the favoritism I saw shown." ASHLEY EHRHART, MISS OKLAHOMA 2022
For example, O’Keefe said, Gabriel “was allowed to do different walking patterns on stage, when we were all told to strictly follow the walking pattern that we were given to by the choreographer. She broke that rule, and they let her do it. Her coaches were allowed to sit in on the rehearsals, and anyone whose coach was outside of the Miss Academy wasn’t allowed to be there.”
Stewart, who also owns the pageant training school Miss Academy, clarified that “personnel staff volunteers” were permitted in rehearsals.
Gabriel disputed allegations of favoritism, saying her actions fell within the rules.
“We were all given the same amount of instructions, we were all given the same point to hit, and we all have different variations of what we do,” she told NBC News. “We all have the same stage time. We just had little variations within the rule.”
Stewart highlighted the limited control the competition has over what the contestants do during the live broadcast. “We encourage them to stick to the choreography that’s given to them, but sometimes some of the young ladies add an extra step or two,” she explained.
Some alums of Miss USA came to Gabriel’s defense.
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