{"id":302981,"date":"2025-11-20T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/302981\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T10:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T10:20:10","slug":"two-miss-universe-judges-resign-days-before-competition-amid-claims-that-secret-committee-pre-picked-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/302981\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Miss Universe judges resign days before competition amid claims that \u2018secret committee\u2019 pre-picked finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two judges for the forthcoming Miss Universe pageant <\/a>have resigned from the event, days ahead of its broadcast.<\/p>\n

Composer Omar Harfouch <\/a>and former Chelsea midfielder Claude Mak\u00e9l\u00e9l\u00e9 have both announced their resignations within hours of each other.<\/p>\n

Harfouch shared a series of posts Tuesday on his Instagram Stories explaining that he was confused and concerned regarding his fellow judges for the event scheduled for Friday in Bangkok, Thailand.<\/p>\n

He claimed that he learned through social media that there was an \u201cimpromptu jury\u201d that was asked to pick 30 finalists<\/a> in advance out of the 136 countries that are supposed to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results of this selection are currently being kept secret,\u201d one of his posts read, adding that none of the \u201creal\u201d eight judges were part of this jury, which he claimed was \u201ccomposed of individuals with a significant potential conflict of interest due to some [personal] relationships with some of the Miss Universe contestants, including the person responsible for counting the votes and managing the results, which constitutes a further conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harfouch then said he spoke to the Miss Universe officials<\/a> regarding the lack of transparency, which led to them posting \u201ca list of names associated with the selection on their Instagram page\u201d without naming exactly what role each person played.<\/p>\n

His posts concluded by writing that he would no longer be a judge for the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter having a disrespectful conversation with [Miss Universe CEO] Raul Rocha about the lack of transparency in the Miss Universe voting process, l decided to resign from the jury and refuse to be part of this charade,\u201d Harfouch wrote. \u201cI will also not be playing the music composed for the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few hours later, Mak\u00e9l\u00e9l\u00e9 shared a statement on his Instagram, writing that he would not be attending the event \u201cdue to unforeseen personal reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with regret that I must announce that I won\u2019t be able to attend the Miss Universe 2025 event due to unforeseen personal reasons,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a difficult decision, as I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard. The platform represents empowerment, diversity, and excellence \u2013 values I have always championed throughout my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely apologise to the organisation, the contestants, and everyone involved, and I hope to be able to contribute in the future under better circumstances. Thank you for your understanding and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Harfouch\u2019s posts, Miss Universe officials<\/a> posted a statement on its Instagram account, addressing his comments and how the judging process works.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Miss Universe Organization firmly clarifies that no impromptu jury has been created, that no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists, and that all competition evaluations continue to follow the established, transparent, and supervised MUO protocols,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven [Mr Harfouch’s] expressed confusion, his public mischaracterization of the program, and his stated desire not to participate, the Miss Universe Organization respectfully acknowledges his withdrawal from the official judging panel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the competition\u2019s former judges claimed 30 finalists were picked in advance without any of the judges being involved (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The competition explained that the musician was no longer allowed to \u201cdisplay, reference, or associate himself with any Miss Universe trademarks, service marks, logos, titles, or registered properties, in any format, medium, or communication, whether digital, written, or verbal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Miss Universe Organization encourages the public, media outlets, and fans worldwide to rely solely on verified MUO communications and to continue supporting the delegates whose leadership, service, and dedication reflect the true values of Miss Universe,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n

The Independent has reached out to the Miss Universe officials for further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two judges for the forthcoming Miss Universe pageant have resigned from the event, days ahead of its broadcast.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[464,157501,88,63471,157500],"class_list":["post-302981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chelsea","tag-claude-makelele","tag-entertainment","tag-miss-universe","tag-omar-harfouch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}