Former Miss World contestant claims Priyanka Chopra's win at the pageant was rigged, receives the support of netizens

Mumbai (Maharashtra): There has been an ongoing controversy surrounding Miss Texas R'Bonney Gabriel's win at the Miss USA pageant with several claiming that the decision was rigged. Amid the backlash, former Miss World contestant Leilani McConney has claimed that the year she participated in the beauty pageant, the results were rigged as well. McConney was a participant in the year 2000, the year Priyanka Chopra won the title!

Leilani who is a YouTuber now, alleged that the Miss USA contest was rigged and that the Miss Texas had a biased win against every odd. She revealed that a similar thing happened when she went for the Miss World contest where an Indian network who had sponsored the entire pageant was unfairly biased towards Priyanka. "I literally went through the same thing at Miss World. Me, I went through that," she said.

"I was Miss Barbados and I went to Miss World, and the year I went, Miss India won. Mind you, Miss India had won the previous year. The sponsor was also Zee TV, an Indian cable station. They sponsored the entire Miss World. Our sashes had Zee TV, and then our country," she narrated.

She shared how Priyanka won the swimsuit round in a dress. She recalled, "Priyanka Chopra was the only person who was allowed to keep her sarong on. Apparently, she was using some skin tone cream to even out her skin tone, and it was still splotchy. I'm not saying that it was a bleaching cream, it was a skin-tone cream. And it didn’t work, so she didn't want to remove her sarong. So, during the actual judgement, she's literally in a dress."

"If you're a contestant in a pageant and somebody favours you, what will you do about it? Why wouldn't you go along with it," the former Miss Barbados questioned.

She further went on to reveal how Priyanka was unlikeable and "not nice". She stated that the bias was extended to a level where the now actor would get meals delivered to her room, had solo press calls and even went for photoshoots that "no one in the Asian region was ever called for". She added that Priyanka even had a solo photoshoot at the beach before she won, while all the other girls were "grouped in a sandpit".

She claimed that although the same designer had made all their gowns, Priyanka's fit perfectly while everyone else's "fit like crap". She even revealed that after Priyanka won the contest, every contestant walked off stage to protest against the unfairness of the results. "At Miss World, everyone knew that Priyanka Chopra was going to win and that it was rigged," she said.

After the video was uploaded, netizend showed their support towards Leilani. Several former beauty pageant contestants too came forward with similar stories with one netizen writing, "Thank you so much for this." Another commented, "It has always been obvious that these pageants are rigged. It is sad that the true, lovely and accomplished beauties never win!"

One netizen pointed out the controversy that Priyanka had created after giving the wrong answer in the Q&A round and yet winning the glory. The then 18-year-old Chopra was asked who she thought was the most successful woman living in the world today. She took the name of Mother Teresa who had passed away three years before the pageant.

These allegations throw a new light over the very cherished win of Priyanka who brought in the crown along with Lara Dutta, who had won the Miss Universe pageant the same year. Priyanka was the second consecutive winner of Miss World after Yukta Mookhey had won the previous year.