A beauty pageant turns ugly: The alleged plot to steal a queen’s crown
Overlooking the clear waters of the South Pacific, a cyclone of controversy was about to descend on Fiji’s Pearl Resort & Spa.
Standing on stage clutching a bouquet of flowers, 24-year-old MBA student Manshika Prasad had just been crowned Miss Fiji.
But soon after, according to one of the judges, things at the beauty pageant “turned really ugly”.
Ugly is potentially an understatement: what unfolded over the next few days would see beauty queens crowned and unseated, wild allegations thrown around and eventually the emergence of a shadowy figure with a very personal connection to one of the contestants.
A couple of hours later, Ms Prasad was told she wouldn’t be travelling to Mexico to compete for the Miss Universe title in November.
Instead, runner-up Nadine Roberts, a 30-year-old model and property developer from Sydney, whose mother is Fijian, would take her place.
The press release alleged the “correct procedures” had not been followed, and that Ms Prasad had been chosen in a rigged vote which favoured a “Fiji Indian” contestant to win because it would bring financial benefits to the event’s manager.
