The mothers of former Miss USA 2023 Noelie Voigt and former Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofie Srivastava are speaking openly about their daughters’ sudden resignation announcements earlier this month.
Noelia’s mother Jackeline Voigt and UmaSofia’s mother Barbara Srivastava sat with Good morning America to discuss the reasons for their daughter’s resignation and to call for changes within the Miss USA pageant system.
“I want to make [it] clearly, it’s not about what they can get, about the rewards… it’s about how they were bullied, abused, mistreated and cornered,” Barbara said. – Their dream job turned out to be a nightmare.
Barbara claimed that UmaSofia — who relinquished her crown on May 8, two days after Noelia — faced harassment from Miss Teen USA management and missed out on opportunities as a result, though she did not provide any other additional details. She also stated that her daughter’s social media account was monitored and controlled by management.
What the queens of the Miss USA pageant have said so far after leaving power
As for Noelia – who stepped down from her post on Monday, May 6, citing her mental health – her mother Jackeline said GMA that she knew something was wrong after interacting with her daughter after the incident during the Christmas parade.
“I saw Noelia so stressed and I said, ‘What happened?'” Jackeline recalled. “And she said, ‘Mom, get in the car, get in the car.’ When I got in the car, I said, ‘What happened?’ Because I know [a man] said something, but I couldn’t understand.”
She continued, “[The man] said to Noelia: »Are you outdated [men] with money?’ And that made Noelia feel very, very uncomfortable.”
The Miss USA Organization told ABC News, “We are committed to fostering a healthy, communicative and supportive environment for all contestants, state titleholders, national titleholders and staff.”
Laylah Rose did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
PEOPLE reached out to the Miss USA Organization for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
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Noelia Voigt in Los Angeles on March 21, 2024.
Paul Archuleta/Getty
The model and beauty queen seemingly alluded to the incident in her resignation The New York Times and GMA writing, “I was made to feel unsafe at events without an effective moderator, culminating in sexual harassment…”
Jackeline said Miss USA CEO and President Laylah Rose responded to the incident by saying the organization would not be able to stop people from saying things to the titleholder during public appearances — a response the concerned mom criticized GMA.
“[Not] even, ‘I’m sorry you went through that?’ ” she said. “… [Noelia] was so upset. That’s not what she worked so hard for.”
Before resigning as Miss USA, former employee spoke out about alleged ‘toxicity’ and ‘abuse’ at the organization
After Noelia’s resignation, Barbara said her daughter UmaSofia knew she had to follow her example.
“When she saw that they were tying [in] Noelia’s mental health [to her resignation], she said, ‘I can’t stand it. I have to get up [for] Noelia,’ she recalled.
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UmaSofia Srivastava in New York on February 10, 2024.
Chance Yeh/Getty
Jackeline and Barbara called on Rose to step down as president and the Miss USA pageant to “come and talk to us.” [and] apologize or clean up this mess.”
The couple claimed on GMA that their daughters were bound by a non-disclosure agreement, so the beauty queens cannot talk about what they experienced, and they warned future contestants for Miss USA and their parents to think about whether they will participate in future elections.
“Look what happened to Noelia and UmaSofia,” Jackeline said. “So really pay attention. We don’t want them to go through this now. It is not a good time to participate.”
“We just don’t want these families and these girls to go through what we went through,” she added.
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Source: HIS Education