When Miss Texas, R'Bonney Gabriel, took the crown at this year's Miss USA pageant earlier this month, fans of the contest noticed something different immediately. Instead of Gabriel's fellow contestants rushing to congratulate her, many walked off the stage inside the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.
Shock waves ricocheted through the pageant community with allegations from contestants that Gabriel, who became the first Filipino American to win the crown, was favored to win before the pageant officially selected its winner on October 3.
Insider spoke to many of the competing contestants, who said the contest, organized by the president of the Miss USA organization, Crystle Stewart, and her company, Miss Brand Corp., was rigged to favor Gabriel.
"A lot of the girls felt like it was the organization's plan from the beginning for R'Bonney to win, no matter who else was competing," Miss Missouri, Mikala McGhee, told Insider.
McGhee, who was one of the many contestants who walked off the stage after the winner was announced, said that she didn't intend "to knock" Gabriel. "It was to send a statement that we all had an idea of what was really going on behind the scenes. We felt disrespected and paraded around for a show," she said.
After the ceremony, the Miss Universe Organization, which previously ran the pageant until 2020, launched an official investigation. The organization confirmed to Insider that Stewart had been suspended indefinitely, while Stewart said in a statement to Insider that she was cooperating with the investigation.
More than a dozen Miss USA contestants said this year's pageant was either rigged or heavily favored Gabriel. They pointed to multiple conflicts of interest between Gabriel and Miss USA's national sponsors.
Two of Miss USA's national sponsors — Miss Academy, the pageant school owned by Stewart, and the med spa Mia Beauté — are also state sponsors for Miss Texas USA. The companies are based in Houston, where Gabriel lived before winning Miss USA.
Miss Montana, Heather Lee O'Keefe, told "Good Morning America" earlier this month that the official coaching school of Miss USA "sponsored all of the contestants but gave an extremely more generous amount to Miss Texas." Stewart has denied that claim.
Miss Illinois, Angel Reyes, told Insider that she also noticed several red flags, noting that Gabriel "had personal relationships with judges who served on the judges' panel during pageant week — an extreme conflict of interest."
As the winner of Miss Texas 2022, Gabriel was given $10,000 in services from Mia Beauté, founded by Dr. Phi Nguyen, a judge for the Miss USA 2022 state costume contest. The company also featured Gabriel on its Facebook page months before the competition, with the earliest photo posted in May 2021. She then appeared in an Instagram photo with Nguyen a month later.
Gabriel would go on to win the costume competition the night before she was crowned. While the state costume contest doesn't count toward the final score for Miss USA, many contestants told Insider they were disheartened to see Gabriel already knew one of the judges. Nguyen did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
A third incident also raised questions: The day after Gabriel won Miss USA, a promotional video of her receiving treatments at Mia Beauté's spa at the Nizuc Resort in Cancún — another Miss USA sponsor — was posted on the resort's Instagram page.
The post came after Miss USA held a weeklong retreat for the 2022 class at the resort in the last week of June, but Gabriel and Miss Colorado, Alexis Glover, weren't in attendance because they hadn't won their respective state pageants yet. They were later crowned on July 3.
While the video showed Gabriel on a solo trip to the Mexican resort, sources told Insider that Glover was never offered the same opportunity, raising questions about Gabriel having an unfair advantage with the two sponsors.
