Beauty queen alleges pay-for-title at 'many' pageants, contestants required to fund their own crowns
A beauty queen alleged that many pageant organisations operate on pay-for-title models, requiring contestants to fund their own crowns and sashes.
This placed heavy financial expectations on participants, said Prestige Pageants founder- CEO Lavania Priya.
Ms Lavania, who was Mrs Earth Water 2023 and Mrs Earth Singapore 2023, said in a statement to Stomp: "Prestige Pageants was created to change that system. We refuse to operate on models that profit from women's vulnerability or dreams."
The statement was in response to a Dec 8 report by Stomp about Mrs Asia Worldwide 2024 Sangeetha S. Sangar and Ms R. Abigail Jayanthi, who was Mrs Singapore Global, being publicly "dethroned" by Lumiere International Pageantry on Nov 25 for "serious breaches".
Chief among them, Lumiere accused the two women of being involved in the formation and operation of Prestige Pageants and using their titles to promote the company. This breached a clause in their contracts with Lumiere prohibiting titleholders from joining or organising other competitions during their reigns.
Ms Sangeetha is listed on the Prestige Pageants website as a co-founder and director.
In the Dec 10 statement to Stomp, Prestige Pageants clarified: "While early planning discussions included contributions from team members, the official operating company is under Lavania Priya, and any earlier administrative filings or exploratory setups by team members, including Sangeetha Sangar, were part of the vision-building and planning phase.
"These earlier filings had no operational impact and are separate from the current company."
The statement said that Prestige Pageants was officially incorporated under Ms Lavania as of Dec 6.
When Stomp contacted Ms Lavania, she confirmed that following the company's incorporation, "neither Sangeetha nor Abigail holds any formal or official roles within the incorporated entity".
Regarding Ms Sangeetha's involvement in Prestige Pageants, Ms Lavinia said: "During the early planning and conceptual phase — before formal incorporation — I had used internal working terms quite loosely while we were exploring the potential structure together."
She added that Ms Abigail had been supporting "more in the capacity of a friend who believes in empowering women", and she never held a formal role in the organisation.
Ms Lavania said: "I stand firmly with my co-founders, and I am deeply grateful to Sangeeta, who first approached me with this idea, and to Abigail Jaya, whose friendship and support have been invaluable throughout this journey."
Prestige Pageants' statement also highlighted the "much larger and long-standing issue within pageantry" of pay-for-title.
Ms Sangeetha had earlier told Stomp she had spent $20,000 on the Mrs Asia Worldwide 2024 competition organised by Lumiere International Pageantry.
She said "I had to pay for my 'national costumers', the entry fee, which was not in the contract. They forced me to buy the tables. If we didn't buy, they treated the queens very badly and even with the talent, we can't win the title. Who buys more tables and invest more money is the one will win."
A Lumiere spokesperson denied Ms Sangeetha's allegations and said that buying the banquet tables was her own decision as Ms Sangeetha had family members who wanted to support her.
Facebook user Joselyn Tan commented on the Dec 8 Stomp report: "The public should also understand that purchasing tables is a long-standing and accepted practice in the pageant industry.
"Even major platforms, including Miss Universe Singapore in previous years, have encouraged such practices for fundraising and voting purposes."
Ms Tan holds the titles of Mrs Asia Pacific Beauty Pageant 2023, Mrs Singapore Asia Pacific Cosmopolitan 2023 and Mrs Asia Pacific Empowerment Beauty 2023/2024, all under Lumiere International Pageantry.
