Photo: Getty
On Sunday night, the Philippines’ Catriona Elisa Gray beat out 93 hopeful contestants in a televised ceremony held at Bangkok’s Impact Arena, to take home the prestigious Miss Universe 2018 crown. She joins a line-up of former beauty queens including Olivia Culpo and Paulina Vega, who’ve previously claimed the title. The ecstatic 24-year-old was crowned by Miss Universe 2017 Demi Leigh Nel-Peters, who hails from South Africa. Miss South Africa, Tamaryn Green was the first runner-up, followed by Miss Venezuela, Sthefany Gutiérrez.
Gray is the fourth Filipina to win Miss Universe and the second in three years, joining Gloria Diaz, who was the first Filipina to bring home the title in 1969, followed shortly by Margie Moran in 1973. 42-years later, Pia Wurtzbach would reclaim the crown in 2015.
The beauty queen, who is part Australian, is a holder of a Master’s Certificate in Music Theory. A humanitarian, the newly-minted Miss Universe also volunteers as a teacher’s assistant to the students of Young Focus, a non-profit organization in the Philippines that provides underprivileged kids an education.
For the Q&A portion of the contest, where the top three had to answer the question of the most important lesson they’ve learned and how they will apply it to their time as Miss Universe, Gray revealed that working in the slums of Manila taught her to find beauty in difficult situations. “I will bring this aspect as a Miss Universe to see situations with a silver lining and to assess where I could give something, where I could provide something as a spokesperson,” she stated. “If I could teach people to be grateful, we could have an amazing world where negativity could not grow and foster, and children would have a smile on their face,” she added.
Congratulations!
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