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Crowned, de-crowned, crowned again: Chaos at Sri Lankan beauty pageant
The Mrs. Sri Lanka beauty pageant descended into chaos at the weekend when a former title holder declared that the winner was ineligible because she was divorced, and forcibly removed her crown.
A video of the Sunday event opened with the 2019 winner of the competition and reigning Mrs. World, Caroline Jurie, speaking to the audience shortly after the winner and runners-up were announced in Colombo.
"There is a rule that you have to be married and not divorced, so I am taking my first steps, saying that the crown goes to the first runner-up," Jurie said, before walking across the stage to remove the crown from Pushpika De Silva, standing with a bouquet of flowers in her arms.
(1) Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 held at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre earlier today, ended a short while ago in a brawl.
— DailyMirror (@Dailymirror_SL) April 4, 2021
Contestant number 20, Mrs. Pushpika De Silva was announced as the Winner and was crowned by Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa, Mrs. Rosy Senanayake and Chandimal Jayasinghe. pic.twitter.com/ttsxxJRVpz
As Jurie started pulling out hairpins from De Silva's hair to release the crown, a woman in a black sari strode onto the stage and apparently tried to stop Jurie, pushing the crown back down, wagging a finger and saying: "Don't do that."
Jurie managed to remove the crown and place it on the head of the competition's runner-up, as De Silva left the stage. Celebratory music played in the background throughout the incident.
In a Facebook post on Monday, De Silva said she was not divorced but separated, writing in Sinhala: "If I wasn't fit at the beginning of this tournament they could have removed me."
????????! ?? ??????, ??????, ???????, ????????? ???? ?????? ?? ??????? ???????, ?????? ????????? ??????? ???????????...
Posted by Pushpika de silva on Monday, April 5, 2021
The prize was returned to her on Tuesday at a news conference, after pageant organizers confirmed she was not a divorcee. They have also apologized to her.
Congratulations to the new Mrs. Sri Lanka World. Mrs Sri Lanka World
Posted by Mrs World on Tuesday, April 6, 2021
The winner of the Mrs. Sri Lanka contest goes on to compete in the Mrs. World contest. Jurie, who won that competition in 2020 in Las Vegas, could not immediately be reached for comment via her social media pages.
The official Mrs. World Instagram account acknowledged De Silva's victory in a brief post with her photo on Tuesday.
"A true queen is not a woman who snatches another woman's crown, but a woman who secretly sets another woman's crown!!" De Silva said in her post. — Agence France-Presse
