Miss USA claims they made “multiple attempts” to include their 2024 winner in this year’s ceremony and knew well in advance she wouldn’t attend — as questions remained about Alma Cooper’s shock snub of the event.
Just hours before the 2025 Miss USA pageant was set to kick off in Nevada, Cooper, 23, announced on Instagram she wouldn’t be there to crown her successor.
“As 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 her title. We respect her decision not to attend and wish her well,” Miss USA President Thom Brodeur said in a Saturday statement to The Post.
A rep for Miss USA told The Post that they knew longhand that Cooper was skipping the pageant.
“We invited Alma and knew ahead of time that she would not be in attendance well before last night,” a Miss USA rep said.
The organization “would have loved to have her with us,” the rep continued, adding, “She will always be our Miss USA 2024.”
Cooper gave little detail as to why she decided to bow out of the ceremony so abruptly.
“As 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,” she wrote on Instagram.
The beauty queen’s parents were tight-lipped about their daughter’s decision, with Cooper’s mom Oralia declining to comment and her father, Stacey, claiming he didn’t know why Alma stayed away.
“I’m a hunter and fisher… I’m retired military… I think it’s great she’s in Miss USA but the mom knows all about that… my main concern is that she finishes school. I’m a Dad, all I care about is that she finishes school at Stanford,” Stacey Cooper told The Post.
Cooper, a West Point graduate, is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Data Science at the California school, where she is a Knight Hennessy Fellow.
A fellow beauty queen alluded to struggles Cooper faced during her reign as Miss USA.
“Alma 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,” Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella wrote on Instagram.
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. She was the first active-duty Army officer to win Miss USA.
“For 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,” Cooper told People.
This is not the first time a Miss USA has caused drama for the organization. In 2024, both Miss USA titleholder Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava relinquished their crowns.
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