The Miss USA who relinquished her crown and title this week accused the pageant’s CEO of failing to take an incident of sexual harassment seriously and creating a toxic work environment, according to a copy of her letter resignation obtained Thursday by NBC News.
“There is a toxic work environment within the Miss USA Organization that, at best, is mismanagement and, at worst, bullying and harassment,” Noelia Voigt wrote in the letter. “It started shortly after she won the Miss USA 2023 title.”
Voigt announced on Instagram on Monday that she was relinquishing her crown, citing her mental health. Two days later, Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, 17, announced she was also stepping down in a statement saying her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.”
Fans who were shocked by the unprecedented resignations noticed that the first letter of every sentence in Voigt’s online statement read “I am silenced.”
In her resignation letter, Voigt said Miss USA CEO and president Laylah Rose was never good at communicating and when she did, she was “often cold and unnecessarily aggressive.”
“It’s incredibly upsetting to try to do my job and be constantly threatened with disciplinary action, including having my pay cut, for things that were never discussed with me and, if it related to a position public for example, did not entail any problem other than that of not responding to personal preferences,” Voigt wrote.
Representatives for the Miss USA Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Rose said in a statement Wednesday that “the well-being of everyone associated with Miss USA is my top priority.”
“My personal goal as the leader of this organization has always been to inspire women to always create new dreams, have the courage to explore everything, and continue to maintain their integrity along the way. I hold myself to the same high standards and take these allegations seriously,” she said.
Voigt included details in his letter about an alleged incident of sexual harassment at a Christmas event in Florida. She wrote that she was left alone in a car with a man who “made several inappropriate statements to me about wanting to enter into a relationship with me.”
Voigt said that when Rose was informed of the situation, she told Voigt: “We can’t stop people from saying things to you in public appearances, that’s unfortunately part of your role as a public figure .”
Rose is also accused in the letter of disparaging Voigt to other members of the organization and describing her as “uninterested” in her work.
“I heard the comments ranged from her describing me as difficult to work for for various false reasons, to weaponizing my mental health issues brought on by my experience as Miss USA 2023, calling me from ‘mentally ill’ in a derogatory manner, to expressing that she hoped I would be hit in the face by a baseball at an event where I would throw out the first pitch of a baseball game,” Voigt wrote in her letter.
Despite the environment, Voigt said, she was committed to the Miss USA brand, but her mental and physical health continued to deteriorate.
“I have now been diagnosed with anxiety and have to take two medications a day to manage the symptoms as I am constantly on edge, worry about what Laylah will show up with and choose to harass me daily,” says the letter.
She wrote that she had flare-ups of a pre-existing condition made worse by stress and experienced “heart palpitations, full-body tremors, loss of appetite, involuntary weight loss, loss of sleep, hair loss, etc. .”
Voigt cited a toxic work environment at Miss USA that she said is dangerous for future titleholders in the Miss Universe Organization.
“Every statement you have made about the morality and integrity of the MUO directly contradicts what is happening within the American organization,” the letter said.
Claudia Michelle, a former social media manager who said she tendered her resignation last week, echoed similar sentiments about Miss USA’s leadership in an interview with NBC News on Thursday.
“Leaders of women’s empowerment organizations must be held accountable,” Michelle said. “How can you not take the mental health of the face of your brand seriously?
Michelle said she was aware that Voigt had raised concerns about her safety and traveling alone and that she began traveling more with Miss USA in March and April.
Michelle said Rose was inconsistent in her communication and the organization’s leadership was unprofessional.
Gn entert
News Source : www.nbcnews.com
