Miss Bolivia Talked About The “Evil” Things She Saw Backstage At The Miss Universe Pageant

When Lenka Nemer Drpić picked up a prestigious award at Miss Universe 2020, it was an emotional moment for the South American beauty. Winning a prize at the world’s biggest beauty pageant was what she had dreamed of. But the Miss Bolivia contestant couldn’t have known the depth of bad behavior that she would encounter behind the scenes...from some of the other contestants!

Battle for the crown

Lenka was incredibly proud to represent her home country at the 69th international beauty pageant. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, the young model claimed the winning crown in the national competition; putting her among those vying for the coveted title of Miss Universe 2020. But Lenka wasn’t prepared for the “evil” that she would experience during the cutthroat fight for the ultimate crown.

Ugly side of pageantry

Thanks to movies like Drop Dead Gorgeous in 1999 and TLC’s Toddlers & Tiaras on TV, we’ve seen the ugly side of beauty pageantry. But it’s hard to know how much of it is accurate or simply fabricated for our entertainment. Well, if anyone is qualified to deliver a damning expose on the backstage world of beauty contests, it’s undeniably savvy, former winner Lenka.

All-rounder

Yes, you see Lenka is not just a pretty face. For a start, she speaks three languages — Spanish, French and English — and is an academic high-flyer. Maths was one of her strongest subjects at school, and the Bolivian beauty is musically talented too — she likes to sing and play the violin. Looks, brains, talent… Wow, some people really do have it all!

Special award

Oh, and did we mention that Lenka is a caring, compassionate person too? She’s a human rights activist, you see. It was this that earned her the honor of being the first recipient of the Miss Universe “Social Impact Award.” Speaking to Colombian commentator Diego Acero, Lenka said she was “shocked” to win the accolade.

In tears

The beauty queen also told Acero that she burst “into tears” after it was announced that she’d scooped the prize. With it, she received $10,000 towards her work to reduce social and economic inequality in Bolivia. The award was for her “leadership and dedication” said the judges, in bettering “the lives of the people in her country.”

Fighting for the cause

In her “Miss Universe Up Close” video, Lenka explained, “I always wonder why so many people are suffering.” She continued, “Activism for human rights, gender [equality], and sustainable alternatives for our world is the result of actually working for it to be different not only for me but for the ones I love and the ones that are to come.”

Childhood struggles

It was her own experience of poverty as a child that motivated Lenka to start the “Huertos Urbanos Bolivia” initiative for tackling hunger. And the beauty also leads workshops designed to educate young students on issues like gender inequality and violence. But she thought she’d be returning to her home country empty-handed after Miss Universe 2020.

Emotional

So, naturally, it was a shock when “Mark the choreographer grabbed her during the commercials and told her [Lenka] to prepare to return to the stage,” wrote Critical Beauty on Instagram. An emotional Lenka said in her acceptance speech, “For me, there is nothing more important than working for my community and we hope to continue working not only in Bolivia but throughout Latin America.” 

Triumphant moment

The beauty queen also posted a photo of the triumphant moment on Instagram. She added, “And how many emotions are seen in this image! They say that the moments that we will remember the most in our lives are those that will mark our history. Thank you all for being part of mine.”

Like a curse

And yet Miss Universe 2020 was an experience of highs and lows for Lenka. Because she’s also spoken about the darker side of the competition behind the scenes. Almost as though it were cursed, the show was subject to a string of other setbacks, too. The biggest, of course, being the pandemic, which saw the pageant postponed from late 2020 until May the following year.

Chaos

And that’s only the half of it. The COVID-19 outbreak also meant that lots of other national beauty pageants — qualifiers for the global competition — were postponed or cancelled. It threw the contest into chaos, with former runners-up having to step in, or auditions having to take place in a quest for new delegates. Three new contestants also had to be found after the originals dropped out.

Beauty show dropouts

A replacement had to be found for Miss Belgium after Céline Van Ouytsel withdrew because she didn’t want to compete during the pandemic. She was replaced by an earlier national competition runner-up, Dhenia Covens. Due to a date clash, there was a swap of Miss France contest winners, too. Meanwhile, health issues forced Miss Polski 2019, Magdalena Kasiborska, to drop out and be replaced. Are you keeping up?

Trouble continues

The problems didn’t end there, either. Lockdown restrictions forced Miss Bangladesh contestant, Tangia Zaman Methila, to pull out of the running only weeks before the competition. The nation was in fact one of 20 others that withdrew from the contest altogether in the end. Miss Universe 2020 was also the first in which Germany had failed to participate since 1952. Jeepers!

Network says no

With an unprecedented number of withdrawals, Miss Universe 2020 become one of the smallest global pageants in history. And there were other issues besides contestants dropping out left, right and center. The fact that the competition was fraught with uncertainty clearly made the TV networks nervous, as Fox dropped the show from its schedule. Instead, it was picked up by cable channel FYI.

Final blow

Then shortly before the competition, it was announced that rapper Pitbull would be the guest performer. But in yet another blow, the star pulled out at the last minute, leaving “Despacito” singer Luis Fonsi to step in. All in all, it seemed as though nothing would go right with Miss Universe 2020. The organisers must have been tearing their hair out (so long as the competitors weren’t).

Tensions and scandals

And while logistical issues dogged the show, there were tensions behind the scenes, too. But it seems this is nothing new. Beauty pageants attract beautiful, wholesome young women with squeaky-clean reputations, in theory anyway. Yet controversy and scandal seem to follow the competitions everywhere. You wouldn’t believe how naughty some of these beauty queens have been…

Racism claims

Take the 2016 Miss Teen USA, for example. Karlie Hay nearly lost her crown after it was revealed that she had made alleged racist comments on Twitter. People magazine reported that three years before the contest, Hay had repeatedly included a racially-offensive word in tweets. She was allowed to keep her trophy though, and posted an apology on Instagram.

Offensive remarks

The Miss USA 2018 winner also had to scramble to retract her words after they got her into hot water. Sarah Rose Summers was accused of being derogatory about the English-speaking skills of other contestants, in an Instagram video. Summers later wrote on the social media site, “I said something that I now realize can be perceived as not respectful, and I apologize.”

Arrested

And there was one pageant contestant who just kept getting into trouble. Katie Rees was crowned Miss Nevada in 2005, but promptly lost her title after indecent photos of her emerged. Rees attempted to clear her name, but she was then later arrested on two separate charges of assault and drug possession. Oh dear.

Fraud

You think that’s bad… A former Miss Pennsylvania was convicted and sent to prison for numerous charges of theft. Brandi Weaver-Gates went as far as to shave her head to pass for a leukemia sufferer. She then duped a number of kind-hearted donors — some of whom were actual cancer patients — into giving her huge amounts of cash. Shocking eh?

Host makes a blunder

It’s not just the beauty queens though, but the competitions themselves that have generated plenty of controversy. One of the most memorable being the time that Miss Universe 2015 host Steve Harvey announced Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, as the show’s winner. In fact, the crown should have gone to Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach. Awkward!

Scoring slip-up

And in a similar flub, Elizabeth Fechtel was announced as the winner of the Miss Florida 2014 competition. But it later turned out that a scoring slip-up meant that runner-up Victoria Cowen should have been the winner. Imagine the embarrassment and disappointment for poor Fechtel, when her moment of glory was taken away.

In disgrace

Then there was the case of the former Miss America boss Sam Haskell. The CEO was forced to resign in disgrace in 2017 after HuffPost published a series of his emails. In them, he made offensive comments about Miss America contestants. “Snakes” being one of the milder words he used. 

Vanessa Williams scandal

Celebrity Vanessa Williams got in a bit of bother following her proud moment as the first African-American to win Miss America. The respected actress and singer claimed the title in 1984, but was forced to give it up after organizers learned that she had posed in the altogether for Penthouse magazine. She eventually received an apology...32 years later.

Stop thief?

Williams isn’t the only celebrity beauty queen who’s been publicly shamed, though. News anchor Lu Parker, who took the title of Miss USA in 1994, was arrested in 2016 for allegedly stealing another passenger’s ear phones at LAX airport. Parker was removed from her flight after the owner of the $200 earbuds accused her. But the celebrity insisted that she took them with the intention of returning them.

Onstage battles

Speaking of de-crownings, one poor contestant had her tiara literally snatched from her head in 2021. Mrs Sri Lanka, Pushpika De Silva, had just been declared the winner when Caroline Jurie forcibly took the crown off her. Jurie claimed that De Silva was divorced — against the pageant’s rules — but De Silva denied this and later launched legal proceedings against her foe.

Crown-stealing

That wasn’t even the first time a “crown-snatch” had happened, either. Sheislane Hayalla also whipped the tiara off the head of Miss Amazon, Carol Toledo, back in 2015. And before anyone could stop her, the sore loser fled the stage with it. Hayalla later told news agency Globo, “She didn’t deserve the title.” Yikes!

Protests

Even as far back as the 1960s, beauty competitions were being accused of objectifying women. And in 1968 hundreds of female protestors turned up at the Miss America pageant brandishing signs like, “Welcome to the Miss America cattle auction.” The women also crowned a sheep — yes, a real sheep, to make their point.

Bad joke

Things got political during one state competition, Miss Massachusetts 2018, when one winner gave up her crown in protest. Maude Gorman returned her sash following a competition skit that poked fun at the #MeToo movement. Suffice to say, there was an apology to Gorman from the organizers. 

Styling row

Another pageant, another de-crowning… On this occasion, it was the 2017 winner of Miss Florida USA who had her title revoked. Genesis Davila lost her crown amid accusations that she got her hair and make-up professionally done. Davila disputed the claims, but the crown still went to runner-up Linette De Los Santos.

Drug addiction

And in perhaps the saddest case of a winner losing her crown...Mary Leona Gage won the Miss USA competition in 1957. But it turned out that she had broken pageant rules by being under 21, and married with children. The shame of her de-crowning, Gage later told The Baltimore Sun, caused her to become suicidal and addicted to drugs. She passed away in 2010.

The dark side

Gage’s story certainly illustrates the darker side of beauty pageantry. But even more goes on behind the scenes than we really know about. Until Lenka Nemer D’rpic gave a revealing insight into it, that is. If you’ve ever seen black-comedy flick, Drop Dead Gorgeous, you’ll know that it parodies the world of beauty pageantry to great effect — including costume sabotage and full-on cat fights between contestants.

Predicted outcome

For a start, the Bolivian beauty queen predicted that she wouldn’t win Miss Universe 2020. It seems that Lenka had a hunch that the judges were looking for something — or someone — different to her, for the title. As she told Diego Acero in her Instagram interview, “it was not [her] destiny” to win the crown. 

“Written by destiny”

In the interview translated by Critical Beauty, Lenka was asked why she didn’t make the semi-finals and responded, “Whatever was supposed to happen that night had already been written by destiny.” In fact, the South American stunner had predicted that Australian contestant, Maria Thattil, would win the competition. But it was Andrea Meza from Mexico who claimed the title. So much for predictions.

Heartache

So did Lenka have any words of wisdom for overall winner Meza? “She advised Andrea to make the most of her reign because it is short,” Critical Beauty wrote. Which only goes to show how fickle beauty pageant reigns are. And begs the question, are they worth the heartache that many contestants go through in the battle for the crown?

Battle scars

While Lenka emerged semi-triumphant from that battle — having scooped the Social Impact Award — she certainly bore a few scars. For a start, she was slammed for the red gown with pointed shoulders that she wore during the contest. But the Bolivian activist ignored the criticism and boldly wore the dress “because it symbolizes strength and empowerment.”

Sabotage

Lenka also revealed that her gown was damaged when she accidentally stepped on it. But hers wasn’t the only dress ruined during the course of the competition. Hinting at sabotage of show costumes by fellow contestants, Lenka added that she “saw feathers missing from the national costumes and other ‘evil’ things. But she didn’t see which of the contestants had committed them,” according to Critical Beauty.

“Evil things”

So it seems that while there might be a certain amount of camaraderie between contestants, there’s also bias, backstabbing and sabotage. “Evil things happen all the time even in pageants,” said Lenka in her interview with Acero. And Miss Bolivia 2020 revealed to blogger Kike Sanchez that she had seen lots of “evil behavior.”

Nasty behavior

Lenka continued, “I saw nasty behaviors against lots of the candidates. What a shame!” It certainly is. So there you have it folks… From beauty queens with shady pasts and criminal records, to onstage crown-stealing and costume sabotage — clearly the world of beauty pageantry has a long way to go still.