{"id":16844,"date":"2025-10-25T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16844\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T23:32:09","slug":"miss-usa-made-multiple-attempts-to-include-2024-queen-in-this-years-pageant-we-respect-her-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16844\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss USA made ‘multiple attempts’ to include 2024 queen in this year’s pageant: ‘We respect her decision’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miss USA claims they made \u201cmultiple attempts\u201d to include their 2024 winner in this year\u2019s ceremony and knew well in advance she wouldn\u2019t attend<\/a> \u2014 as questions remained about Alma Cooper\u2019s shock snub of the event.<\/p>\n

Just hours before the 2025 Miss USA pageant was set to kick off in Nevada, Cooper, 23, announced on Instagram she wouldn\u2019t be there to crown her successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the new ownership and leadership of the Miss USA Organization, we made multiple attempts to welcome Miss Cooper to the 2025 Miss USA competition to crown her successor and end her reign with the dignity becoming\u00a0her title. We respect her decision not to attend and wish her well,\u201d Miss USA President Thom Brodeur said in a Saturday statement to The Post.<\/p>\n

Alma Cooper made shockwaves when she announced she wouldn\u2019t attend the 2025 Miss USA pageant. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A rep for Miss USA told The Post that they knew longhand that Cooper was skipping the pageant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe invited Alma and knew ahead of time that she would not be in attendance well before last night,\u201d a Miss USA rep said. <\/p>\n

The organization \u201cwould have loved to have her with us,\u201d the rep continued, adding, \u201cShe will always be our Miss USA 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper gave little detail as to why she decided to bow out of the ceremony so abruptly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I close this chapter, I do so with the knowledge that I finished what I started with integrity and my self-worth held high, just like the crown I was honored to wear,\u201d she wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Alma Cooper was the first active duty Army officer to be crowned Miss America. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The beauty queen\u2019s parents were tight-lipped about their daughter\u2019s decision, with Cooper\u2019s mom Oralia declining to comment and her father, Stacey, claiming he didn\u2019t know why Alma stayed away. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a hunter and fisher\u2026 I\u2019m retired military\u2026 I think it\u2019s great she\u2019s in Miss USA but the mom knows all about that\u2026 my main concern is that she finishes school. I\u2019m a Dad, all I care about is that she finishes school at Stanford,\u201d Stacey Cooper told The Post.<\/p>\n

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Cooper, a West Point graduate, is pursuing a Master\u2019s Degree in Data Science at the California school, where she is a Knight Hennessy Fellow.<\/p>\n

A fellow beauty queen alluded to struggles Cooper faced during her reign as Miss USA.<\/p>\n

Miss USA said they knew in advance of Cooper\u2019s decision. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAlma spent the last 14 months keeping a title alive all on her own. No team behind her. To be Miss USA with no team and no salary is impossible and yet she was determined to keep going,\u201d Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Cooper had taken a break from her graduate studies in order to focus on her responsibilities as Miss USA and her Army Recruiting work, People Magazine reported<\/a>. She was the first active-duty Army officer to win Miss USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past year, I have done my absolute best to honor the prestigious title while also serving as [First Lieutenant] Cooper in the U.S. Army,\u201d\u00a0Cooper told People.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time a Miss USA has caused drama for the organization. In 2024, both\u00a0Miss USA titleholder Noelia Voigt\u00a0and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava relinquished their crowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miss USA claims they made \u201cmultiple attempts\u201d to include their 2024 winner in this year\u2019s ceremony and knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9351,7371,3641,9,24,63,122,124,123,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-16844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-beauty-pageants","9":"tag-beauty-queens","10":"tag-miss-usa","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}