Laura Zúñiga: This Mexican beauty won the Miss Hispanic America title in 2008. Just two months later, she was in handcuffs, along with seven others, for drug trafficking, racketeering, and weapons violations, among other charges. They had seven 9mm pistols, semi-automatic rifles, and over US$53,000 in cash. The Mexican media dubbed her “Miss Narco” because of connections to the drug underworld through her boyfriend, Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, a high-ranking leader of the Juárez Cartel. A movie loosely based on the scandal, Miss Bala (or Miss Bullet), was released in 2011.
May Nyat Noe: A Myanmar beauty queen was dethroned after she took off with her crown and free breast implants in August 2014. May Myat Noe, winner of Miss Asia Pacific World Super Talent 2014, was flown to South Korea for preparation to become a K-pop star. But she was stripped of her crown for alleged dishonesty and bad behaviour – she even received US$10,000 (B320,000) for a breast enlargement operation to help her budding singing career. The organisation also prepared two albums for her to record and provided choreographers. She later apologised in a televised press conference.
Leona Gage: It only took one day for pageant oranisers to strip Leona Gage of her Miss USA title in 1957. Soon after she won the crown, it was revealed that Gage was a married mother of two. In addition, she was 18 years old, not 21 as she originally said. Later, she admitted that she was first married at the age of 14 but had it annulled a week later. Still, this could be considered the first beauty pageant scandal of all time.