Instagram comments from the current Miss USA’s official account featuring Noelia Vogt’s profile photo began appearing in February and March, six months after she won the beauty pageant crown. Ta.
They had a pattern. They praised Layla Rose, president of the Miss USA organization.
“Thank you @laylahrose for making all this happen,” one wrote. “She has gone above and beyond time and time again! Love our President!” read another.
The comment seemed strange to staff at the Miss USA organization, as Vogt and Rose were known to have a strained relationship. And their suspicions were not unfounded. Vogt didn’t write or post passionate messages about Rose.
According to text messages reviewed by The Daily Beast, Vogt confronted Rose about the comments and asked her not to use her name in such endorsements. Rose blamed the social media team, but her comments were secretly edited to include the attribute “staff.”
The altercation was one symptom of a deeper problem that erupted in surprising fashion last week. Vogt resigned from his position as Miss USA last Monday, citing his mental health, and his resignation from Miss Teen USA followed soon after. This double whammy made headlines around the world, but it wasn’t shocking to insiders. The organization has been plagued by internal turmoil stemming from Layla Rose’s arrival, he told The Daily Beast.
Rose was hired to turn around the struggling franchise and promised to transform it into a vehicle for women’s empowerment. But 10 former employees, current state officials and current title holders told The Daily Beast that she threw the state into chaos. Those officials said Rose postponed the state championships, bounced between four different coaching teams, bullied and threatened title holders and failed to adequately staff the organization.
Some of them are now calling for Mr. Rose to resign.
“This is the first time we’ve supported cancel culture,” said Jennifer Lloyd, who has worked on the contest’s production in the past. “I’ve always wanted to be the kind of woman who champions women…but this is the first time I’ve seen someone really try to destroy and sink a brand.”
Rose did not respond to requests for comment sent to her via text or LinkedIn, and Miss USA did not respond to calls seeking comment or a detailed email.
Rose previously told NBC, “The well-being of everyone associated with Miss USA is my top priority.”
“My personal goal as head of this organization is to inspire women to always create new dreams, to give them the courage to explore everything, and to remain authentic in the process,” she said. . “I hold myself to these same high standards and take these allegations seriously.”
Leila Rose walks the runway with models during 2019 New York Fashion Week.
Brian Ack/Getty
Rose, a former model who worked in a series of odd jobs before launching her own fashion label and styling as a pageant expert, has faced a series of scandals, including allegations of bid-rigging and sexual harassment by the Miss Universe Organization. In 2023, it acquired Miss USA from the Miss Universe Organization. Former vice president. Former president Krystle Stewart chose to step down in 2022 following an investigation, leaving a gaping hole in the leadership that Rose, whose legal last name is Roysley, jumped in to fill.
The problems began shortly after Rose took over in August, just weeks before the 2023 Miss USA pageant. State board members, who run qualifying tournaments in each state and are independent franchisees, many of whom have been in the business for decades, learned of her appointment through a press release, said one person, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. a state director told The Daily Beast. The state secretary said they were invited to a Zoom call with the new president, but he insisted he couldn’t discuss details, dodging questions about the fast-approaching national contest.
“It was a terrible storm from the moment we left,” she said.
The initial pageant production team was hired just six to eight weeks before the broadcast date, according to three people involved in the event. The team worked around the clock and was also instrumental in securing a deal to air the pageant on The CW, the first time it has aired on network television since 2019. However, Rose replaced that team three weeks before the contest aired and subsequently fired him as manager. He was replaced soon after, officials said.
State secretaries also said they received little information about when and where contestants should be during the competition. Rose had promised to hold regular town meetings in advance of the event, but he didn’t meet with state directors again until several days after arriving at the pageant in Reno, when he sent an email invitation with two hours’ notice. sent.
“No other company will communicate like this if they truly consider you a valuable part of their company,” the director said. “And that’s when we realized what we were getting.”
Many of the state pageants from which contestants for next year’s Miss USA pageant are selected begin immediately after the Miss USA pageant concludes. But at the first meeting in August, Mr. Rose informed all state directors that he would not hold the contest until he gave the green light. After months passed without hearing from her, state officials were forced to cancel the contest, losing the venue, vendors, contracts, deposits, and in some cases even the contestants, who switched to other contests. Ta. In January, the state secretary told The Daily Beast that the parent company, Miss Universe, had given the green light to hold the state pageant so that the winner could be crowned in time for the next pageant cycle.
Meanwhile, tensions between Rose and the newly crowned Miss USA are already high. In late November, Voigt traveled to El Salvador to represent the United States in the Miss Universe pageant. Her coach, Tom Brodeur, said she was not given any official chaperone or assistance with clothing, which is customary for Miss USA winners.
In his resignation letter, obtained by The Daily Beast and first reported by NBC, Vogt said he flew to El Salvador at his own expense, with his mother as chaperone, and that his family took out a personal loan to prepare for the competition, which he is still paying off. He said there was. . The stress of traveling and preparing for the competition was so great that his mother was admitted to a hospital in El Salvador, Vogt wrote.
When Mr. Vogt tried to communicate with management about these and other issues, Mr. Rose was either silent or met with outright aggression, former employees and coaches said. Brodeur said he witnessed Voigt receiving “high-handed, aggressive and threatening communications” from Rose when she sought guidance. This was often necessary, he added. That’s because she didn’t receive her official Miss USA handbook until five months after the competition started, she added. work. He added that Rose was “very clear about her hierarchy,” putting Vogt in her place and often saying, “I’m the president, you’re not.”
Claudia Engelhardt, a former Miss USA social media director who resigned last week, said she witnessed Rose threatening to garnish Vogt’s pay if she refused his instructions. In many cases, Engelhardt added, these are matters of personal preference, such as whether Vogt tagged someone in an Instagram post. In her resignation letter, Vogt said she threatened to discipline Rose for a post he made on his personal Instagram on the day he requested time off from his $100,000-a-year job.
Engelhardt said he often wondered, “Don’t executive directors have more things to worry about than harassing and bullying title holders?”
A former Miss USA employee told The Daily Beast that Voigt raised her concerns with the Miss Universe organization in February, but received no response until one of the national co-directors called the parent company.
Miss USA’s management also deteriorated. When Mr. Engelhardt joined in January 2024, there were two national co-directors (the third on Mr. Rose’s leadership team in less than six months), but he was specifically responsible for running social media and coordinating events. There was no one to do it. Engelhardt said Rose tried to wear all of those hats at once, which slowed down her communication and caused her to miss out on events and sponsorship opportunities.
“How do you buy an organization when you don’t have the money to staff it?” Engelhardt asked, adding, “I’ve seen state contests run well.”
The state secretary said she received no response when she sent an urgent email, but was reprimanded by Rose when she ultimately CC’d Miss Universe’s higher-ups. When she read in Mr. Vogt’s resignation letter that Mr. Rose was described as aggressive and unapproachable, she said: [wasn’t] I was surprised because we both felt the same way. ”
“We try to be the positive face of brands, but they just continue to ignore us and disrespect us,” she said.
In late April, Ms. Rose fired two national co-directors, including one who had brought Ms. Vogt’s concerns to the Miss Universe organization months earlier. Vogt announced his resignation a week later.
“Unfortunately, I have made the very difficult decision to decline the title of Miss USA in 2023,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am grateful for the love and support of my fans, old and new, my family, friends, coaches, former state and local coaches, and my beloved Miss Teen USA, Uma Sophia.”
Two days later, Umasofya Srivastava resigned from her post, saying on Instagram that her “personal values are no longer fully aligned with the direction of the organization.”
2023 Miss Teen USA Umasofia Srivastava and 2023 Miss USA Noelia Vogt — before their resignations.
Craig Barritt/Getty
Miss Idaho Hannah Menzer said the news sparked an uproar in Instagram chats among the current state title holders. The group of 50 women began brainstorming how to support Vogt and Srivastava, arriving at a joint statement the majority posted on Instagram, expressing support for her decision. It asked Mr. Vogt to waive the confidentiality clause in the contract.
“We want Noelia to tell her own story,” Menzer told The Daily Beast. “We want her to share what happened because we believe there’s more to this story. And while Miss USA is a women’s empowerment organization, we want its leadership to… We want answers because that doesn’t seem to be happening.”
The group is still deciding what to do now that a 24-hour deadline set to release Vogt from his non-disclosure agreement has passed. Mentzer said he doesn’t yet know the full story of what happened, but after reading Vogt’s resignation letter in full, he is leaning toward calling for Rose to resign.
“I believe that leadership needs to change, and I’m not the only one in the pageant world who believes that,” she said. “Our letter is not just about putting pressure on Miss USA; [on] The Miss Universe organization is calling for action. ”
At least one other state titleholder, Miss Colorado, renounced her crown in solidarity with Mr. Vogt and Mr. Srivastava. Miss Teen USA runner-up Stephanie Skinner declined to replace Srivastava this week, saying: people “This title has been a dream of mine, but I believe that what I will never give up on is my personality.”
Secretary of State who spoke to The Daily Beast said that if Rose was allowed to remain, she would also resign after this year’s contest.
“It’s clear to all of us that she is completely unprepared to run this business,” the director said. “And she’s going to try to run it into the ground to prove us all wrong.”
