Six countries from Southeast Asia will not be present at the 75th Miss Universe competition next month in Puerto Rico.
The development stems from warring factions among executives of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) and Miss Universe East (MU East) chief Nawat Itsaragrisil.
Nawat is a Thai beauty entrepreneur who also heads several national Miss Universe franchises, as well as the Miss Grand International (MGI) pageant based in his native country.
MUO and Nawat in recent months have been at odds over publicizing information and whether the latter has the authority to speak on matters involving the organization.
As a result, MUO announced last month that it will not recognize any national franchise agreement done without a legal licensing framework, for they are unauthorized and void.
The nations affected by this are the franchises in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore, though MU East previously indicated it would back the six countries’ participation in the diamond edition of Miss Universe.
Laos and Indonesia have not yet selected a delegate for Miss Universe 2026, while the other four have:
Thailand – Tharina Botes
Vietnam – Nguyen Quynh Anh
Singapore – Vion Tan
Malaysia – Eunice Wong