Miss North Carolina USA dethroned after controversy over ‘recently surfaced information’
Miss North Carolina USA has been stripped of her crown over recent controversy that prompted pageant organizers to act.
Brittany Boltinhouse, who is from Duplin County, was recently crowned Miss North Carolina USA and was supposed to take the stage at the 75th annual Miss USA pageant on August 27. Instead, the runner up, Myla Hadley, will take her crown and place at the national pageant.
Pageant organizers did not say what, exactly, Boltinhouse did to have her title removed. A Blaize Productions, who runs pageants in the Carolinas, said the decision came after a “thorough review of recently surfaced information.”
“We ask our pageant family, supporters, and the public to extend kindness and respect to both Brittany and Myla during this transition. Moments like these are never easy for anyone involved, and we remain committed to treating everyone with dignity while continuing our mission of empowering the next generation of women leaders,” the organization said.
Thom Brodeur, the chairman of Miss USA, said the organization “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity.”
“A title here isn’t a trinket. It is a position of trust, extended by an organization and accepted by a woman who agrees to carry a standard in public,” he said. “When that standard is broken, the title cannot continue as though nothing happened.”
Brodeur said the organization holds pageant contestants to a zero tolerance standard for conduct, but said holding someone accountable is not permission to “strip someone of their humanity.”
“There is a young woman at the center of this. She has been named, examined, and judged in public in a way that most of us would not survive, and she is still a human being with a family, a future, and a life ahead of her that is longer than this part of her journey,” he said.
Brodeur said Boltinhouse would issue her own statement on the matter soon.
“She should be the one to speak to this in her own voice. We wanted to honor that,” he said.