On Saturday January 14, 2023, Miss USA became Miss Universe. Not only that, but the woman who won the title, R’Bonney Gabriel, is also the first Filipina-American woman to ever win the title.

Gabriel is 28 years old and from Houston, Texas. She runs a sustainable clothing line, and she plans to use her new title as a platform to raise awareness about sustainability.

The official Miss Universe is… USA🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/mBZvNTJN1m

— Miss Universe (@MissUniverse) January 15, 2023

This should be exciting news. Go America, right?

Well, it’s not that simple. Some are claiming that the competition was rigged, and some are claiming that Gabriel only won the Miss USA title because that competition was rigged as well.

Before the Miss Universe pageant ever took place, fellow contestants in the Miss USA pageant claim that Gabriel only won because of “favoritism” and that the contest was rigged. Contestants also found it suspicious that Gabriel was featured in an ad for NIZUC spas, a beauty treatment company, less than 24 hours after winning Miss USA. NIZUC spas just so happens to offer a prize to the winner of the competition. That left contestants wondering how this new Miss USA got her prize so quickly.

For example, Miss Montana, Heather Lee O’Keefe, wrote, “@MissUSA was crowned less than 24 hours ago, yet she already got her sponsored vacation to @NIZUCResort.” She added, “Are you kidding me? I was giving y’all the benefit of the doubt, but this is just embarrassing at this point.”

Gabriel tried to negate the claim by explaining that she is a brand ambassador for MIA Beaute, an affiliate company of NIZUC spas. That explanation wasn’t really helping her case. It turns out that the founder of MIA Beaute was a judge at the Miss USA pageant. Hmmm.

Now, the controversy continues to the Miss Universe pageant, which was held in New Orleans this year and happens to be owned by the same company that owns the Miss USA pageant – JKN Global Group, which is run by a transgender woman named Anne Jakrajutatip.

During the competition, Jakrajutatip made a speech about being transgender and about the Miss Universe pageant now being run by women instead of men.

She received applause, but it hardly takes away from the suspicion that the competition may have been rigged, especially when the claims are that Jakrajutatip was involved in rigging the competition.

Do you think the pageants may have been rigged?