An American beauty queen vying for the Miss Universe crown is defending herself against accusations of xenophobia, saying her controversial comments were meant to show how much she admires two of her competitors.
Sarah Rose Summers has been hit with backlash for comments she made in two videos about Miss Universe contestants from Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Miss Cambodia is here and doesn’t speak any English, and not a single other person here speaks her language. Can you imagine?” Miss USA said in one video.
“Like, [Miss Australia Francesca Hung] said that that would be so isolating and I said ‘Yes, and just confusing all the time.’”
In another video, Summers, Hung and Miss Colombia Valeria Morales were asked what they thought of Miss Vietnam.
“She’s so cute and she pretends to know so much English,” Summers responded.
“You ask her a question, after having a whole conversation with her, and she just [nods]. She’s so adorable.”
The remarks prompted a backlash on social media, with some people calling for Summers to be removed from the competition.
Summers released a statement Wednesday defending her comments, saying claims of xenophobia and racism are “the opposite of” what she was talking about in the videos.
“I was in no way intending to be hateful,” she said.
“We were discussing how difficult it would be to be the only one to speak a language. I cannot imagine. We discussed how much perspective we’ve gained from our time at miss universe through realizing how big and small our world is.”
This year’s Miss Universe competition will wrap up Dec. 17 in Bangkok. Canada is being represented by Marta Stepien, a 24-year-old model from Windsor, Ont.
