Miss Mexico Crowned Miss Universe 2 Weeks After Viral Confrontation with Pageant Executive Causes Contestants to Walk Out

Miss Universe has crowned its new winner.

On Thursday, Nov. 20, the international competition hosted its beauty pageant at Impact Challenger Hall in Bangkok, Thailand, and crowned Fátima Bosch, who represented Mexico.

Competitors from more than 130 other countries and territories competed for the crown at the 74th Miss Universe final, for which the theme this year was “The Power of Love.”

The crowning of Bosch comes after the Miss Universe Organization has found itself embroiled in a few controversies in the lead-up to the pageant.

Just a few weeks ago, on Nov. 4, a livestream went viral of pageant executive Nawat Itsaragrisil scolding Bosch for allegedly refusing to participate in a photo shoot meant for contestants to share on social media.

Despite denying the claims, Itsaragrisil continued to chastise Bosch, prompting several other contestants to follow her out of the room as she left.

Neither the Miss Universe Organization nor Bosch immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time. Though after the incident, Bosch addressed the media in a video shared by pageantry_com and tgpc_official on Instagram.

“Your director is not respectful,” she said in the interview. “He called me dumb.”

The Miss Universe Organization president, Raul Rocha Cantu, also responded to the controversy in a video statement, in which he expressed his “solidarity and support” for all the women.

“Unfortunately, Nawat has forgotten the true meaning of what it means to be a genuine host,” Rocha said.

Days before the competition, a judge who was part of the official Miss Universe selection committee, Omar Harfouch, resigned from his post, claiming that he had learned of an “impromptu jury” allegedly formed to choose 30 finalists from the 136 countries meant to participate.

Harfouch claimed that he learned about the selection committee via social media, and claimed that none of the “real” eight judges were present when the group convened. “The results of this selection are currently being kept secret,” the pianist wrote on his Instagram Stories.

In a second post, Harfouch alleged that the unofficial judging panel is “composed of individuals with a significant potential conflict of interest due to some [personal] relationships with some of the Miss Universe contestants, including the person responsible for counting the votes and managing the results, which constitutes a further conflict of interest.”

Harfouch also claimed that the pageant responded by rushing “to publish a list of names associated with the selection on their Instagram page,” though he notes that the post did not specify “the [roles] played by these [individuals],” likely referring to Miss Universe’s recent upload featuring a carousel of selection committee members, which was shared on Monday, Nov. 17.

Harfouch was not one of the eight people included in the post, which was captioned, “Meet the inspiring members of the Beyond the Crown Selection Committee for the 74th Miss Universe Competition✨.”

For its part, the Miss Universe Organization posted a statement on the pageant’s official Instagram page, stating its intention to “clarify certain inaccuracies regarding the Beyond the Crown Program and the official judging processes of the 74th Miss Universe competition.”

“The Miss Universe Organization firmly clarifies that no impromptu jury has been created, that no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists, and that all competition evaluations continue to follow the established, transparent, and supervised MUO protocols,” the statement read.

The same day judge and former French soccer pro Claude Makélélé announced that he would not be a judge at the pageant, citing personal reasons. A day later, the president of the Miss Universe selection committee, Princess Camilla di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, dropped out of judging as well.

The pageant appointed several new judges, including Natalie Glebova. It later came to light that Glebova had personally coached Miss Universe competitor Jaime VandenBerg, who is in Thailand competing as Miss Canada.

Last year’s winner, Victoria Kjær Theilvig, became the first-ever Danish winner of the Miss Universe pageant, taking home the title at the 73rd version of the pageant.

Theilvig, 21, accepted her tiara from Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Palacios of Nicaragua.