The dark scandals behind beauty queen glamour… from £250k drug arrest to winner who faked cancer & bizarre kidnap plot

WHILE beauty contest winners are treated like royalty, their crowns can easily slip, as one former Miss Scotland has discovered.

Former Miss Scotland Lucy Thomson, 26, was stripped of her pageant title last week after biting and racially abusing two bouncers at a rugby event.

The former queen has now been convicted of physical assaults on both bouncers and the racially aggravated assault of bouncer Andrew Okpaje.

The incident occurred after Lucy was chucked out of the Edinburgh City 7s event in June 2023 with her sister.

Andrew Okpaje called the police over the racial abuse and the organisers of the Miss Scotland pageant said Lucy had been “dethroned”; after she was found guilty.

Pageants are known for winners who hold the crown for beauty, brains and passionate causes – but often tiaras are thrown off and it ends in disaster.

We take a look at the scandalsthat affect some of the world's most glamorous women… from faking cancer to a crazy kidnapping plot.

Cancer fraud

Former Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International winner Brandi Weaver-Gates raised over $30,000 after faking cancer. S

Brandi, who defrauded 150 people after telling them she had leukaemia,was rumbled after her family started to get suspicious when she insisted on attending her chemotherapy treatment alone. They contacted the hospital, which confirmed there was no record of her having cancer.

She pleaded guilty to multiple charges of theft by deception and receiving stolen property, landing her two to four years in prison in 2015.

The pageant organisers said: “When you deceive the public and take people’s money that is under the pretence of fraud, we will not tolerate those actions.

“Ms. Weaver-Gates ... will be required to return her crown and sash upon her release from being detained.”;

Torrid affair

It emerged last February that Miss Japan 2024 Ukrainian-born Karolina Shiinohad been having an affair with a married man and she was forced to step down and relinquish her title.

Her scandalous affair was revealed by a bombshell report and Karolina later publicly apologised to the man's partner and his family, as well as to all others involved.

Previously, the ex-beauty queen was suspended indefinitely from acting work contracts with famous Japanese actress Ryoko Hirosue's acting agency over her alleged affair with a married celebrity chef.

‘Wildcat' fight

Dubbed “the Welsh wildcat”;, Sian Adey-Jones was arrested in her title-winning year for assaulting a police officer.

The glamour model, crowned Miss Wales in 1976, had to be restrained as she was taken to the cells, yelling, “I’m a wildcat!”;, with one copper saying sarcastically: “Look who we’ve got here, Miss Wales!”;

Sian was fined when the case reached court but this setback didn’t stop her becoming one of the most popular Page Three girls ever.

Saved by Trump

In 2006, Miss USA Tara Conner came close to losing her Miss USA title.

She was caught drinking underage, using cocaine and kissing Miss Teen USA Katie Blair at a party.

The then-owner of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants, a certain Donald Trump, announced that she would be allowed to retain her title on condition she went to a drug rehabilitation unit.

Love Island romp

Miss Great Britain 2015, Zara Holland was dethroned after an on-screen romp on ITV2’s Love Island in 2016.

The scandal attracted sympathy from Zara’s fans but fury from the pageant directors.

She later called her actions “the biggest mistake of my life”;.

Nightclub brawl

Crowned in 2009, as the first black Miss England, Rachel Christie lost her title after an altercation in a nightclub.

Rachel, niece of Olympics sprinting legend Linford Christie, allegedly fought with Miss Manchester, Sara Beverley Jones, during a row over Gladiators star David McIntosh.

In 2015, Rachel appeared on Love Island, leaving in week two.

Fix row

Last year the Miss Universe Fiji 2024 pageant was plagued by conspiracies and controversy after Manshika Prasad thought she had won the crown.

Her rival Nadine Roberts from Sydney, Australia swiftly dethroned Manshika after judges were believed to have wrongly awarded first place.

Officials claimed there had been a “rigged vote” favouring a “Fiji Indian” winner due to this financially benefiting the event.

Pageant organiser, Grant Dwyer hit back and argued that the competition was “judged fairly” and that Manshika's crowning “holds substance”.

Drug smuggling

Heather Ross was crowned Miss Bermuda in 1982 but her fall from grace was remarkably swift.

The 22–year-old was arrested just one week after the Miss World pageant for trying to smuggle more than £250,000 worth of cocaine into London from Amsterdam.

The de-crowned Miss Bermuda was sentenced to three years in jail.

Saucy snaps

Miss Nevada 2007 Katie Rees was stripped of her title when naughty photos emerged two months after winning.

The images showed her simulating sex acts. But worse was to come, when Katie was arrested for the possession and sale of methamphetamine in 2015 and given a suspended jail sentence.

Naked pics

After becoming the first black Miss America in 1983, Vanessa Williams had to abdicate when Penthouse magazine announced plans to publish nude photos of her.

Vanessa went on to become an actor and singer, having a worldwide hit with Save The Best For Last.

The Miss America pageant belatedly apologised to her – in 2015 – for forcing the resignation.

Sex offender

A prison sentence awaited Miss Kentucky 2014 when she went on trial for sexting a minor.

Ramsey Carpenter-Bearse was a 28-year-old teacher when she sent topless photos to one of her 15-year-old former students.

She was sent to jail for two years and placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Porn baron lover

Gabriella Brum became the shortest-serving Miss World in history in 1980.

The 18-year-old’s relationship with 52-year-old porn film producer Benno Bellenbaum came under immediate scrutiny, as did the revelations of nude photos.

The German-British pageant queen quit just 18 hours into her reign.

A year later, the controversial couple went on to marry but when they split shortly afterwards, Benno committed suicide.

Single mum row

Welsh beauty Helen Morgan quit as Miss World 1974 after only three days.

Helen revealed, after winning the Miss United Kingdom title, that she was an unmarried single mum to baby Richard.

It was against pageant rules but organisers allowed her to carry on and to compete in Miss World.

The frenzied press attention that followed her victory became too much for her and, when it was reported that she was to be cited in a divorce case, she stepped down.

Crazed kidnap

The bizarre story of Joyce McKinney became a worldwide sensation in 1977 when the “Manacled Mormon”; case hit the tabloids.

Crowned Miss Wyoming in 1973, she was accused of kidnapping a Mormon missionary, Kirk Anderson, chaining him to a bed and sexually assaulting him.

When the law finally caught up with the blonde beauty queen, she told police that she loved Anderson so much that “I would ski naked down Mount Everest with a carnation up my nose”;.

The story was made into a 2010 movie, Tabloid.

Miss USA ‘rigged' storm

Many contestants claimed Miss USA 2022 was rigged after Miss Texas USA R’Bonney Gabriel was crowned.

According to The Washington Post, Miss Brands, Miss USA’s umbrella corporation, was investigated for claims that the pageant outcome was fixed.

Other girls who were competing refused to congratulate R’Bonney Gabriel after she won.

Later in 2023, The Miss Universe Organisation CEO dismissed the “false”; rigging allegations as “absurd.”;