Miss Puerto Rico 2016 Loses Crown Over Un-Beauty Queen-Like Behavior
Miss Puerto Rico 2016 has lost her crown just four months after winning it. Officials said that Kristhielee Caride lost her chance to compete in the Miss Universe pageant because of a “terrible attitude.”
The trouble started when Puerto Rican paper El Nuevo Día published an interview with the newly crowned victor on Monday. The headline “Miss Puerto Rico 2016 Sick Of Cameras and Interviews” ran above a photo of Kristhielee flipping through her phone while at an event at a local mall where she was supposed to meet with the public.
The Miss Puerto Rico profile openly questioned the role she won in 2016 as they spoke about how she was extremely cold with the audience and, in general, not seen behaving in a beauty queen-like manner. The article described her as “bored.”
Yet one particular statement in particular is causing waves in the island’s pageant world. In front of 1995 winner and current Miss Puerto 2016 director Desirée Lowry, Caride committed the ultimate sin for a person with her title when asked why she appeared nervous.
“It’s because I don’t like cameras.”
The reporter wasn’t taking this for an answer from a contestant who had won Miss Puerto Rico 2016, a highly watched televised event, just a few months before.
“But you seemed to like them before?”
When pressed further about what she had been up to since claiming the Miss Puerto Rico crown, Kristhielee said that she was still doing a lot of the same things, such as taking English classes and taking a few courses of her own. The journalist noted in the accompanying text that they had to cut the tape a few times before they finally got an answer out of her.
The criticisms didn’t stop there. It seemed that none of Miss Puerto Rico’s answers satisfied the journalists. They seemed especially shocked that the drama student was still trying to live her normal life, visiting homes and going to auditions. They asked: “But don’t people recognize you in the street now?”
“On occasion people have recognized me, but other times they keep confusing me with Zuleyka Rivera. It doesn’t bother me, but it happens. I’m happy as I am, I don’t see the need to change my style just because I look a bit like someone else.”
Ending the interview, the piece noted that the only time that Miss Puerto Rico really seemed that engaged was when she was talking about an upcoming play she was going to be in: Hay motín compañeras.
“I wanted the earth to swallow me. You always have to put your best face forward… it’s a given that we are going to be in front of cameras and that we have to answer all types of questions.”
Even though Kristhielee is starting off 2016 no longer titled Miss Puerto Rico, the shamed beauty queen defended herself admirably on Facebook. Caride said that while she disagreed with the judge’s decisions, she had let a bad day manifest itself in front of people and hoped it has not tarnished anyone else’s reputation.
“I want to express mi sincere apologies to every one of my fans, especially those who have supported me since my first moment, my team and Miss Universe Puerto Rico. It was never my intention to ruin, hurt or damage the image of the people who have helped me to get where I am today.”
Miss Puerto Rico 2016 certainly isn’t the country’s messiest crown loss in the last few years. After triumphing at the 2015 edition, Destiny Velez went on a Twitter rant after a pro-Muslim message was posted by filmmaker Michael Moore.
[Image via Facebook and Ethan Miller/Getty Images]
