Noelia Voigt, the first Miss USA to resign, says she feels ‘vindicated’ after Miss Universe sued ex-pageant CEO Laylah Rose

• Noelia Voigt said she feels “vindicated” by a new lawsuit against former Miss USA CEO Laylah Rose’s company.
• Voigt resigned as Miss USA during Rose’s leadership in May 2024.
• The owner of Miss Universe is now suing Rose’s company, saying it created a “toxic workplace environment.”

Noelia Voigt, who made history as the first Miss USA to give up her crown, said she feels “vindicated” after the owner of Miss Universe sued former Miss USA CEO, Laylah Rose, alleging she created a “toxic workplace environment.”

“The facade is crumbling big time,” Voigt told Business Insider.

In her official resignation letter, Voigt described her experience as Miss USA as taking a “detrimental mental and emotional toll” due to Rose’s constant harassment.

Rose didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Lawyers for the Miss Universe Organization declined to comment.

Lifting the shackles

Miss Universe, which oversees the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, is suing VVV Global Ent., the company owned by Rose. The lawsuit, which notes that Rose is the only employee of VVV, alleges that it created a “toxic work environment” and failed to provide prize packages for Miss USA and Miss Teen USA winners.

Voigt’s mother, Jackeline Voigt, told Business Insider last Friday that the family hadn’t heard from the Miss Universe Organization since her daughter and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivatsava resigned within days of each other in May 2024.

The former Miss USA is hoping the new lawsuit will lead to a conversation between her and the organization.

“I don’t need for them to get on their knees and apologize and beg for my forgiveness,” Voigt said. “I understand that, when it came to my relationship with them, I was temporary. They had a long contract with Laylah, so, in terms of business, their loyalty was with her.”

Still, Voigt hopes the organization can release her from Rose’s restrictive NDA, a new requirement introduced by Rose when she was CEO. She alluded to her NDA in her resignation letter, hiding a cryptic message: “I AM SILENCED.”

Voigt said the NDA has blocked her from career opportunities, including writing a book or doing speaking engagements about her reign.

“That’s the best way for them to rectify the situation, and I hope they’re open to it,” she said. “It’s my life and my story. This shackle on me, it would feel nice to have it lifted.”

‘Eight months of torture and abuse’

Voigt was crowned Miss USA in September 2023, two months after Rose was announced as the pageant’s new CEO. She succeeded Crystle Stewart, who led the pageant during a turbulent two-year period that included allegations of rigging and a sexual harassment scandal.

It was meant to be a new era, but trouble quickly began.

In an interview with Business Insider in May 2024, Voigt and Srivatava’s mothers said their daughters had endured “eight months of torture and abuse” while working with Rose. Jackeline Voigt said Rose’s communication was “so abusive, so aggressive,” it would leave her daughter “shaking just to see a text or a call or an email from Laylah.”

In her resignation letter, Voigt said she had to be prescribed two different anxiety medications while she was Miss USA.

“I’ve never ever in my life been on anti-anxiety medication,” Voigt told Business Insider in August. “It wasn’t something that came out of nowhere. I felt like I had to put on a facade to represent the organization because I had this title, but I didn’t agree with what was going on.”

Rose denied the allegations in an open letter sent to ABC News in May 2024.

“Such behavior is not accepted, and we can assure you that if such behavior ever occurred, we would take immediate steps to protect our titleholder and provide access to appropriate resources,” she wrote.

The problems continued

Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip‘s company, JKN Universe, filed the suit against VVV Global on October 3. The company is seeking more than $75,000 in damages for breach of contract.

For Voigt, the lawsuit is a step in the right direction, though she said it only covers “a small percentage” of what she went through.

JKN’s complaint referenced situations from Voigt’s resignation letter, including when the pageant queen said she was sexually harassed during a Miss USA appearance after being left alone with a man in a car. The complaint said VVV failed to provide a chaperone or travel companion at times, despite the “contractual obligation to do so.”

JKN said VVV also failed to prepare Voigt for Miss Universe 2023 or provide her with a national costume for the competition. Jackeline Voigt told Business Insider that her family had to pay $20,000 out of pocket to help Voigt prepare for the pageant, where she ultimately placed in the top 20.

Voigt told Business Insider on Thursday that she was glad JKN’s complaint acknowledged what she and Srivastava went through, but at the time, it “felt like we were screaming into a void.”

Meetings with the Miss Universe Organization only seemed to deepen tensions with Rose, Jackeline Voigt told Business Insider in 2024. She said Rose punished the pageant queens by revoking their social media access to the pageant’s official pages and began “impersonating” them online to praise herself.

“The meetings stopped maybe a month or two before the girls resigned because they realized nothing was really changing,” Jackeline Voigt said. “It was only making things worse.”

Rose remained CEO after Voigt and Srivastava stepped down. The 2024 Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants went on as planned, with Alma Cooper and Addie Carver winning the respective titles.

In the complaint, JKN said VVV failed to pay Cooper’s $100,000 Miss USA salary and the promised $10,000 Miss Teen USA scholarship to Carver. JKN said it also learned of Rose’s “continued poor treatment of contestants and pageant winners” in October 2024, including failing to properly prepare Cooper for Miss Universe 2024.

A new era

JKN’s complaint alleges that the bad publicity surrounding Rose has significantly hurt the pageant’s brand. Miss USA state directors told the company that fewer women were applying to compete, and JKN said it couldn’t secure a US broadcaster to air the pageants due to the “public scandals.”

The complaint said JKN finally decided to terminate its management agreement with VVV in July. On September 4, Thom Brodeur announced he was the new CEO of Miss USA. Rose tried to dispute the claims a day later, writing on Miss USA’s official Instagram page that she was still in charge and had not seen “any new contracts regarding any transfer of ownership.”

“When I learned she had been served termination papers in July, I audibly gasped,” Voigt told Business Insider. “Did she really think this wasn’t eventually going to become public information? That’s mind-boggling for me, but I’m not surprised at all.”

On October 24, Voigt will watch a new Miss USA be crowned on the same stage where her life changed two years ago. The pageant queen said the lawsuit has already helped her reembrace some of the memories from when she competed, including the Dua Lipa song that played during her year’s opening dance number.

“Usually, when I hear ‘Dance The Night,’ I skip it,” Voigt said. “But today, I allowed myself to listen, and it immediately transported me back to the choreography and the stage and everything I was seeing and feeling in that moment.”

“It felt different today than if I had listened to it the day before yesterday,” she added. “The pageant world is healing.”

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