In a bizarre turnm of events at the Mrs Sri Lanka contest 2021, the winner of the contest Pushpika De Silva was crowned uncrowned and then crowned again by the judges. According to BBC, the incident took place on April 4, when contestant Pushpika De Silva was adjudged Mrs Sri Lanka. However, even before she could hog the limeligh and glory, she had her crown snatched by the 2019 winner Caroline Jurie.
Judges announced De Silvia as the winner of Sri Lanka's biggest beauty prize contest in a theatre in Colombo on Sunday, but Caroline withdrew her crown saying that the participants should be married and not divorced as per the rule of the contest.
Stating a rule, Jurie said, "There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place."
Jurie took off the crown from De Silva's head and placed it on the runner-up. A tearful De Silva walked off the stage. A video of the moment has gone viral on social media.
However De Silva says that she is separated but not divorced. In a Facebook post, she said that she went to the hospital to get treated for head injuries after the incident. She added that she would take legal action for the "unreasonable and insulting" way she was treated.
In a post, she wrote, "I'm still an un-divorced woman... A true queen is not a woman who snatches another woman's crown, but a woman who secretly sets another woman's crown!"
The organisers of the beauty pageant have apologised to De Silva.
The national director of Mrs Sri Lanka World, Chandimal Jayasinghe, told the BBC, "We are disappointed. It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage."
The prize was returned to De Silva after the organisers confirmed that she is not a divorcee.
