PETALING JAYA — It was a dramatic end to the Mrs Sri Lanka 2021 pageant when the winner Pushpika De Silva was unceremoniously stripped of her crown.
The deed was carried out by last year’s winner Caroline Jurie who duly placed the coveted crown on the first runner-up’s head.
In online video footage, Jurie is heard explaining that she did so because winners cannot be divorced and disqualified De Silva from being the title winner.
“There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place,” Jurie told the stunned crowd.
Subsequently. Mrs World Sri Lanka national director Chandimal Jayasinghe said that steps have been taken to award the crown to De Silva.
Colombo Page reported that Jayasinghe said that such incidents should not happen and no one can take back the crown which was unanimously given by the organising committee and the judges.
He added that Jurie had no moral right to do such a thing and her arrogant actions were not condoned.
In a video posted, De Silva was seen walking off the stage after the crown was then awarded to the first-runner up.
The New York Post reported that De Silva was hospitalised for head injuries after her crown was forcibly removed from her head.
De Silva said in her official Facebook account that she was not a divorcee and challenged the organisers to produce any document to claim that she was divorced.
“Living separately and being divorced are two completely separate things,” she said in the statement stressing that she was not divorced even at the time of posting the statement.
“Real queens fix each other’s crowns.”