If there’s a real winner of the Miss Universe 2015 pageant, it probably has to be Ariadna Gutierrez. This year’s Miss Colombia spent two entire minutes thinking she was the winner of the pageant (and had earned the opportunities and prizes that come along with it), only to learn Steve Harvey had made a massive mistake and Miss Philippines had actually earned the crown. This week, Gutierrez came out to speak about the experience and was super graceful about the whole thing. Here’s what she had to say:
After the storm comes the calm. I want to thank each of the people who have sent me messages of support and strength! Each of you are incredible human beings and I am the luckiest woman in the world to have the support not only of one country but of the world! The destiny of every person on this planet is already written, and mine is this. I could give the joy of being Miss Universe to my country only for a few minutes, today thanks to that Colombia and the Latin community sounds in every corner of the planet. I want to congratulate all Filipinos for their new Miss Universe. The joy you must be feeling is huge! Life goes on and we each know why things happen in our lives.
Gutierrez’s message was posted to Facebook for all of her followers to see. Responses have been varied on social media following the now-famous pageant flub, with many outraged about Harvey’s mistake and others just cracking jokes about the whole thing. While Miss Colombia didn’t take the mistake with plenty of humor, she has been pretty classy about the whole thing. Even when she was standing onstage and the crown had to be removed from her head and placed on Miss Philippines.
What happened during the pageant would have been particularly tough on any beauty queen, but since this pageant happens to air on a major TV station, the moment was seen by a whole lot more people than the average local pageant would be. The video also was posted online, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s arduous. During the pageant, Steve Harvey read the card wrong and Miss Colombia was given the sash and the crown. She stood onstage, waving to the crowd with the spotlights on her for several minutes before Steve Harvey abashedly came back up and told the audience about his mistake.
The whole thing has had to be tough on Ariadna Gutierrez, but also on Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, who actually won the Miss Universe pageant. It’s nice to see that both ladies have been upholding the values of pageantry and handling the flub with aplomb.
