Miss Mexico crowned Miss Universe in scandal-plagued pageant : NPR
Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch celebrates Friday her victory in the Miss Universe 2025 competition, organized in Thailand.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images
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Mexican Fátima Bosch won this year’s Miss Universe pageant, just days after walking out of one of its events in protest.
Bosch, 25, was crowned the new Miss Universe on Friday, capping a chaotic few weeks of drama – on and off the pageant stage.
It all started before the competition officially started, during a belt ceremony in early November that was broadcast live on Facebook.
In it, Nawat Itsaragrisil – a Thai media personality and businessman who was director of the pageant at the time – stood in front of a room of aspiring contestants, microphone in hand, and berated Bosch for not participating in some of his promotional activities.
When Bosch stood up and tried to answer, Itsaragrisil called security to escort him away. She exited the room, followed by several other contestants, including the reigning Miss Universe at the time, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig of Denmark.
Bosch later told Thai media that the director “called me an idiot because he has problems with the organization,” which she said was unfair “because I’m here and I do everything…and I’m just trying to [give] my best.”
“And I think the world needs to see that, because we are empowered women and this is a platform to have our voices heard,” she added. “And no one can silence us, and no one will do that to me.”
At a news conference, a tearful Itsaragrisil said he had not called Bosch a “fool,” as has been widely reported, but was instead talking about the “damage” caused by his behavior. He also apologized – to Bosch, who he did not name, and to fans – on stage at a preview event the next day, saying “the pressure is on and I’m… human.”
But the consequences continued.
Miss Universe Organization (MUO) president Raúl Rocha criticized him in a six-minute video, in which he said Itsaragrisil, who is also the director of Miss Universe Thailand, “forgot the true meaning of what it means to be a true host” by showing women a lack of respect “in addition to the grave abuse of calling security to intimidate a defenseless woman, trying to silence and exclude her.”
“Nawat, you have to stop,” Rocha said, adding that there would be legal and corporate consequences from the organization.
Rocha also said he would restrict Itsaragrisil’s participation in the competition, “limiting her as much as possible or eliminating her altogether”, although the two were photographed together at competition events as recently as Thursday.
During the final round of the pageant on Friday, Bosch was asked how she would use the Miss Universe title to “create a safe space for women around the world.”
“As a woman and Miss Universe, I would use my voice to power and serve others,” she responded. “We are here to speak out, to make change… because we are women, and those who have the courage to stand up are the ones who will make history.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum – the first woman to hold the office – applauded Bosch’s victory during her daily press briefing on Friday.
“I like that she spoke up when she felt it was an injustice and it was an example,” Sheinbaum said, according to the Associated Press. “That thing they said about being prettier when you’re quiet has been left out. Women are prettier when we’re talking and participating.”
Miss Mexico Fátima Bosch competes in the national costume competition of the Miss Universe pageant on Wednesday in Nonthaburi province, Thailand.
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Resignation of judges, falsified allegations and hospitalization of a candidate
The showdown between Itsaragrisil and Bosch put Miss Universe in the spotlight weeks before the competition kicked off. But in recent days, the controls have been even more thorough.
This week, just before the competition began, two of the eight judges abruptly resigned on Tuesday, within hours of each other.
One of them, French footballer-turned-coach Claude Makélélé, said he would not be able to attend the event “for unforeseen personal reasons”. The other, the Franco-Lebanese composer Omar Harfouch, was much more virulent about his departure, affirming that the competition was rigged.
Harfouch alleged in a number of videos and Instagram posts that two days before the final, a “secret vote was organized to preselect 30 candidates out of 136”, carried out by people who were not official members of the jury.
“I could not claim, in front of the public and the television cameras, to legitimize a vote in which I never participated,” he wrote.
The Miss Universe Organization responded with a lengthy statement denying Harfouch’s accusations and suggesting he may have been referring to the selection committee for its “Beyond the Crown Program,” a separate social impact initiative with its own jury.
“The Miss Universe Organization firmly clarifies that no impromptu jury has been created, no external groups have been permitted to evaluate delegates or select finalists, and that all pageant evaluations continue to follow established, transparent and supervised protocols of the MUO,” she wrote.
When the preliminary rounds finally began on Wednesday, they did not go without incident either. During the evening gown tour, Miss Jamaica Gabrielle Henry fell off the stage near the end of her walk. Videos on social media showed her being taken away on a stretcher.
Henry did not participate in the final. On Friday, Rocha, the organization’s president, said in an Instagram update that he had just visited her and her family in a Bangkok hospital, where she is under observation but has no broken bones.
Since 2024, the Miss Universe Organization has been jointly owned by Thai media company JKN and Legacy Holding Group USA Inc., a division of a Mexican company owned by Rocha. The company has changed ownership several times since its founding in 1952, including nearly two decades under current President Trump, which ended in 2015.
The organization has faced declining viewership and financial instability in recent years, as well as broader questions about relevance, objectification and inclusiveness in the modern era. Its host country changes frequently and Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón announced Friday that the island would host the competition next year.
