Imelda Schweighart during her coronation as Miss Earth Philippines in June this year. (AP PHOTO)
SHE MIGHT have not brought home the crown in this year’s international pageant, but Imelda Schweighart is definitely stealing the spotlight as she decided to cut short her reign as Miss Earth Philippines.
This was after Imelda got some beating from netizens when a video caught her saying scathing remarks against 2016 Miss Earth Katherine Espin of Ecuador that may have all started after seeing that what was supposed to be her gown was worn by the triumphant Latina beauty.
“It was my gown. He made it for me. He wrote on the sketch that it was ‘for Imelda Schweighart’ and it was patterned after Artemis,” she explained.
Imelda later narrated that she “felt violated” because she was not made aware that she was being recorded when she spoke with her fans.
According to reports, the Filipina beauty queen accused that the recently crowned Miss Earth had undergone cosmetic surgery before joining the pageant to achieve her good looks. She uttered the remarks backstage after she missed her chance to be on the Top 16 of the competition.
“Yung nanalo, peke ilong, peke baba, peke boobs! Miss Earth, dapat natural,” Schweighart said in the video.
She later claimed that what she said in the controversial video was made “in the heat of the moment,” caused by anger she felt upon learning that her competition gown was taken out of her dressing room and was given to Espin to wear for the evening gown competition.
Perhaps it was also anger that made her share on her Facebook account a video of her fitting the yellow number with designer Leo Almodal. But Schweighart maintained that it was not her intention at all to insult the Ecuadorian beauty.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Schweighart said she was sorry for making “unmindful statements,” explaining that what she said was “supposed to be private.”
But the Filipino-German beauty queen refused to retract her statements and stressed that she is just “telling the truth.”
Schweighart added that she was not at all “bitter” for failing to get the crown, but just got offended by seeing her gown worn by someone else.
Last Monday, Carousel Productions, the Philippine-based organizer of the pageant announced the official resignation of Schweighart from her duties and responsibilities as the reigning Miss Earth Philippines.
“Imelda came with her mother, from New Zealand, to pull her out because of the controversy. She could not take what was being done to her daughter and will bring her to New Zealand,” Carousel Executive Vice President Lorraine Schuck told the Inquirer.
“My mom is pulling me out from this mess people are getting me into. I did it myself, but it’s sad that people are doing this to me. And they are the ones calling me crazy,” Schweighart told the Inquirer after the meeting.
Guam’s Gloria Nelson was generous enough to lend her a spare gown, she added.
“I just went out to see my mom and brother, talking to my fans from Facebook waiting outside. I was super comfortable. Whatever I said in the past, I’m sorry. I was not thinking, it was in the heat of the
moment, I was just speaking my mind,” she told the Inquirer.
Meanwhile, Schuck said she found the incident “sad” because “I love her.”
“I love all of these girls. But I also heard her explanation on CNN. She was angry at what happened. There were some things that led to this,” she said.
Katherine Espin of Ecuador bested 82 other aspirants for the crown foiling Schweighart’s bid to secure a “three-peat” for the Philippines after the country’s historic back-to-back victories in 2014 and 2015, courtesy of Jamie Herrell and Angelia Ong, respectively.
Schweighart is only the third Filipino beauty to miss the semifinals in the international pageant.
However, this was not the first time that she got involved in a controversy.
She earlier drew flak for asking Austria’s Kimberly Budinsky on a Facebook Live video where former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler originally hailed, and later declaring “our President is doing Hitler stuff.”
Schweighart earned more detractors when, in another interview, where she said she possesses the same qualities that the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein had.
She also posted a cryptic Facebook status throwing shade at “two female judges” in a preliminary judging session. The post was subsequently deleted.
Schuck said the organizers are planning to award the Miss Philippines-Earth title to Schweighart’s runner up, 2016 Miss Philippines-Air Kiara Giel Gregorio.
“We haven’t spoken to her (Gregorio) about this yet. But she should be the one who should inherit the title,” Schuck added.
The Miss Earth and Miss Philippines-Earth winners are expected to work on projects that help protect the environment.
