Christina Mikkelsen, who was stripped off her title as Miss Universe Denmark 2016 just a few days after competing in the 65th edition of Miss Universe pageant held in Manila, Philippines last January 30th, took to Facebook to express her sentiments regarding her dethronement, accusing both John Paul Hamilton and Anders de Voss, co-directors of Face of Denmark (the agency that sends Danish representatives to various international pageants), of verbally mistreating and threatening her because she had refused to comply with their demands to lose more weight before competing in Miss Universe. However, Hamilton and De Voss dethroned Mikkelsen, citing as excuse that she had "links to a criminal organization" after her ex-boyfriend Teodorin Obiang - the son of an African dictator - has $100 million yacht seized in Swiss money laundering probe. Mikkelsen claims that she and Obiang had already broken up before she won her national title.
According to Mikkelsen, Hamilton had sent her a number of inappropriate and "unpleasant" messages to her while she was in the Philippines. She claims that ever since she won her national title, Hamilton had already begun to speak ill of the other participants. He also started writing to her in "a very strange way." One day he wrote: "You are so beautiful. You can win it all." The other day he wrote: "You have not a chance in Miss Universe," says the Danish beauty queen. She also accused Hamilton of telling her to lose eight kilograms before a pageant. Hamilton acknowledges that he did send a message that she should lose weight, but that he meant to say 8 pounds, which is slightly less than half 8 kilograms.
Meanwhile, John Paul Hamilton, former co-director of Face of Denmark posted the following statement on its Facebook page on February 10 explaining his side of the story:
Hello, When Christina Mikkelsen entered our national pageant Face of Denmark we were made aware that she had previously dated Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. At that point in time they were not dating anymore and there weren’t any allegations against him or Christina. Christina won the title Miss Universe Denmark and went to represent Denmark in the Philippines. Ever since the beginning she has been very determined and goal oriented, which we in Face of Denmark found very positive in this very competitive environment of international beauty pageants and she did the best she could, I am sure. Just prior to her return to Denmark we were notified about some allegations on money laundering concerning her ex-boyfriend Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. Being part of money laundering is of course a breach of our agreement but allegations are just allegations until the opposite has been proven by the court and at that point the allegations were all about her ex-boyfriends possible actions. Furthermore, she had already represented Denmark at Miss Universe, which is of course the main activity according to our contract with our representatives/titleholders so we had no intentions of dethroning her and we definitely did not want to create any negative media coverage on her at that point, it served no point and for her sake we wanted to keep all media focus away from her in case the rumours of allegations should become more than that. However, when she then came back to Denmark we were informed that the allegations were now also concerning her actions. Furthermore, we received information that she planned to do a media coverage on TV with hard criticism of the Danish pageant organisation just days before it was public news with her ex-boyfriend. Due to the sudden hard media coverage on her own part, we felt obliged to dethrone her in order to show the world that our organisation of course does not support the actions behind the allegations and that she has in several other points acted in breach with our contract. So unfortunately that was the path we felt obliged to take and we hope that everything will soon be sorted out in Christinas favor. Regards, John Paul Hamilton, former national co-director
So there you go, readers! We believe that both parties raised legitimate points but that their respective reputation has also been tarnished to a certain degree. We hope that both parties come to a viable settlement soon.
Happier Times
Christina Mikkelsen (center) with national director Anders De Voss (left) and now former
co national-director John Paul Hamilton (right)
Photos courtesy of John Paul Hamilton