Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters has been accused of racism after she was spotted giving foods to orphans with HIV while wearing gloves.
Last week, the 22-year-old Miss South Africa was at the Ikageng Community Centre in South Africa. She was criticised for a photo shared on Instagram that showed her with the orphans. Several users accused her of being racist and said that she is afraid of touching the children.
However, the beauty queen defending herself said that she was wearing gloves only for hygiene purposes. In a video message on Twitter, she was handling food due to which she had to wear gloves. She also apologised to everyone if her actions caused any offence.
"I just want to clear something up. All the volunteers on site wore gloves because we were told it was the right thing to do while working with food and we were handing out food to young kids. That was our only intention with wearing the gloves; to be as hygienic as possible. I really feel that my intentions were completely misunderstood," she said in her video message.
"To me, the moral of the story today is that 300 kids got a proper, warm lunch and they got that with or without gloves, so I am a bit sad my intentions were taken completely wrong and I can only apologise if I offended anybody," she added.
Nel-Peters is not the only beauty queen to make headlines. Take a look at seven other beauty queens who were in news for all the wrong reasons.
Vanessa Williams resigned as Miss America in 1983 over nude photos
Vanessa Williams became the first African-American to win Miss America 1984. However, her crowning was overshadowed by her nude photos scandal that made her resign as Miss America. She is now a successful actress and singer and the Miss America Organization issued an official apology to her during Miss America 2015.
Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010, courted controversy
Rima Fakih, the first Arab-American to win Miss USA, couldn't find a place in the top 15 of Miss Universe contest after her stripper pole picture that showed her in red shorts and bra surfaced online. Not only that, she was also blocked out of the competition that was held in Las Vegas in 2010.
Tara Conner almost lost her Miss USA 2006 title
Not one, but Tara Conner made headlines for several reasons. After winning the Miss USA contest, she sparked controversy after she was caught drinking underage, tested positive for cocaine, sneaked in nightclub boys into her apartment and kissed Miss Teen USA, Katie Blair.
Her title was retained only after she agreed to enter a drug rehabilitation programme.
Emily Kachote was stripped from Miss Zimbabwe 2015 title
Nude photo controversy led another beauty queen to lose her title. Emily Kachote posed for nude photos and violated the contract of Miss Zimbabwe Trust that made contestants swear in that they have never posed naked, nor will they do to win the competition. However, Kachote violated the contract because of which she was stripped of her title.
When Miss Lebanon received flak after posing with Miss Israel at Miss Universe 2015
Miss Lebanon Saly Greige was slammed after she posted a selfie with Miss Israel Doron Matalon during the 63rd Miss Universe beauty pageant. Some Lebanese slammed Greige for sharing the frame with the rival country contestant. They even said that Greige should be stripped off from her title.
Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez Arévalo was called the two-minute Miss Universe
The goof-up of the Miss Universe 2015 winner was one of the biggest beauty pageant scandals. Host Steve Harvey announced Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez Arévalo as the winner of Miss Universe 2015, but after a few minutes, the host announced that Ariadna is not the winner and instead announced Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurztbach as the winner. This went viral on social media and that led social media users calling Miss Colombia a two-minute Miss Universe.
When Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez 2015 made anti-Muslim comment
Miss America Organisation suspended Miss Puerto Rico 2015 Destiny Velez after she sent a series of offensive anti-Muslim messages on Twitter. Her tweets were in response to filmmaker Michael Moore's tweet that read, "We are all Muslim."
"Muslims use our constitution (sic) to terrorize USA & plant gas stations," one of her tweets read. "All what Muslims have done is provided oil & terrorize this country & many others."
After her tweets sparked controversy, she was suspended indefinitely.
