Rachel Gupta breaks silence on resignation; Miss Grand International head Nawat Itsaragrisil responds
Rachel Gupta, who previously held the Miss Grand International 2024 title, opened up in an emotional 56-minute video about her decision to relinquish her crown.
The first Indian MGI winner turned emotional as she shared what she's been going through since she won the tilt in November 2024. She said she decided to speak up as her fans "deserve to know the truth" and so that aspiring beauty queens would "understand what they're signing up for."
"These have been the worst few months of my life. I have been at rock bottom," she said, adding the last time she was truly happy was when she clinched the MGI crown. "Since then, it's been going downhill.”
Gupta began by claiming that vote-buying was evident “in the form of donations” during the pageant, but noted that she cannot blame those countries that bought votes because "everybody wants to win." While she did not pay for her votes, she said she won through public support.
According to the model and beauty queen, the Miss Grand International organization "only cared about money" and that it was "impossible to work" with them.
She added that despite her hard work, all she got in return was "constant harassment, mental torture, mistreatment, and it's on a systemic level."
No 'queen' treatment
As the winner of the competition, Gupta had duties to fulfill in Thailand. However, she said that the organization did not take care of her, placing her first in a small hotel room and eventually in a "dilapidated house" that was more than an hour away from the organization's office.
Basic necessities like pots and pans were also not found in the house. She had to order food from delivery services, which would sometimes cancel on her as her place was too far.
“I requested multiple times, please can we make sure there's food? It's their responsibility. I'm there with them, with that organization. They should at least make sure that they're giving their queen food to eat.”
Gupta also claimed that the organization constantly "hounded" her to lose weight, with one representative starting to "pinch me in different places."
She was only provided a yoga mat after she requested gym access.
“What am I supposed to say to that? It's so embarrassing and makes you feel so small and so bad. I understand, obviously I have to stay fit and stay in shape for the job but it's so difficult when you don't have access to anything and you're just locked in a house all day long. What are you supposed to do?” the beauty queen said, crying.
Gupta also said that people would question why she is not active on social media. But she revealed that there would be days when she would just be stuck at home as there were hardly any events.
“I'm sitting here, depressed, nothing to do,” she said.
The beauty queen opened up about her mental health, saying days "would get harder and harder for me" as there was too much "toxicity and negativity" within the MGI organization.
Only given a month's allowance
In the video, Rachel discussed the financial difficulties she faced after winning Miss Grand International.
Gupta admitted that she only read about the contract's payment terms after her victory. She stated she was supposed to get a monthly stipend, with the prize money paid after her reign. However, she noted that she was only paid for the first month in November
"They didn't pay me at all after that," she said, adding that it was her parents who helped her.
She further recalled returning from a work trip in another province only to discover her belongings in disarray and the money her parents had given her missing from her suitcase.
"I spoke with Teresa [Chaivisut] about it and the moment I bring it up with her, she starts attacking me and blaming me for it," she said.
"I understand it was my fault I didn't lock my suitcase but I never imagined something like this could happen on company property," Gupta continued. "I'm not a contestant anymore. I'm their queen. It's their job to take care of me and make sure I'm safe and my things are safe. But she fully blamed me."
'It's a facade'
As a beauty queen, Gupta hoped to be an advocate, inspiring others, and creating change. But, instead, she was asked to sell random products on TikTok Live, which left her feeling "guilty for misleading the fans."
"It baffles me. You have women—me as a speaker who wants to talk issues, who wants to create change in the world, who has so many ideas not just business but philanthropic work—and you want her to sell chili paste and chili sauce and random things on TikTok? Seriously," she asked.
The 21-year-old beauty queen claimed that the organization's core advocacy, which is "Stop the War and Violence," is "all a facade."
She said, "The only reason I'm doing this is to use my voice in a way that matters, not selling on TikTok but actually working with charities. They used this 'stop the war and violence' thing, but it's all fake. It's all a facade. Where is the stop the war and violence. Where is the advocacy work for that?"
"I've heard Nawat [Itsaragrisil] say 'it's useless, that people don't care about it. It's not entertaining. It doesn't make money so we're not going to do it,'" she recalled.
"I'm sorry but it's not all about entertainment. Being a queen, that's not what pageantry is about. You know, it's about being a global public figure who uses her voice for good, you know, not these cheap entertainment tactics.” Gupta said.
She said that during the signing of the contracts, she was not allowed to negotiate or have her lawyer look at it. "Teresa said no. 'If you don't want to sign it, don't sign it. You can leave.'"
'We'll take your crown away'
In the video, Gupta revealed that the organization would sometimes blackmail and manipulate her.
"You can't bring up a single issue with them because they will just say, we'll take your crown away," Gupta said, adding that Nawat Itsaragrisil and Teresa Yuphayao Chaivisut, the president and vice president of MGI, respectively, are “cold-hearted businesspeople" who "just want to extract your use, make money off of you.”
"They do not care about what you speak, what you think. They only care about is what you look like," she added.
Rachel ended her video saying: “If you're thinking of supporting this pageant, or if you're a girl who's thinking of—God forbid—of competing in this pageant, please go into way completely aware of all of these things that even if you win, you'll be completely on your own and you're not going to get any love or special treatment or safety or support from this organization."
“The organization, Miss Grand International Organization, does not care about you. It does not care about its queens. All it wants is to use its queens until the queens are not useful. And I could not be a part of this more, which is why I chose to give up my title and to resign,” she continued.
Gupta ended by thanking her fans for their love and support.
“I want you to know that this decision to give the crown back, it did not come from a place of pain. It came from a place of strength,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything, I feel like I gained everything. I feel free for the first time in months. I feel free and I feel like I can breathe. I’ve just been drowning for so long and I feel like I’ve come up for air. And I have my life back and I’m so grateful for that.”
Nawat tells his side
On May 28, via Instagram Stories, Nawat presented his side, alleging that Gupta undertook unauthorized jobs.
He supported his claims by posting photos of her at various events, screenshots of flight details and hotel bookings, and even pictures of Gupta and her family reportedly receiving "free" plastic surgery in South Korea.
Nawat asserted that "so [many] people lost money because of her."
He also claimed that the Indian beauty queen complained about being underpaid for an event in the Czech Republic. "This part is organization duty, but she [doesn't] care [about] anyone. She [is] always fussy," Nawat wrote, adding, "She want[s] more than US$4,000 but they don't have any receipt. [She's] always talking [about] herself."
The organization's founder further shared "before and after" photos of Gupta, highlighting changes to her chest. He claimed that Gupta said she did not do any surgery.
He also uploaded a video of a two-story house with a garden in Bangkok, which he claimed was Gupta's residence, asking, "Are you sure it is small for you?"
MGI supported these claims with a detailed "chronological summary" of Gupta's title revocation shared on Facebook on Thursday.
Support for Rachel
Meanwhile, Gupta's fellow beauty queens rallied in support through heartfelt posts. Notably, Miss USA Noelia Voigt, who also stepped down during her reign, expressed empathy for Rachel.
"Resigning isn't just 'walking away.' It's stepping away from a dream you poured years of your life, thousands of dollars, and countless of sacrifices into," she wrote on her Instagram Stories.
"What we're seeing from MGI's leadership right now is not only childish but deeply telling," she said. "The social media tirades and personal attacks on Rachel are not only incredibly unprofessional, but are also fueling negativity, hate, and vitriol toward Rachel."
She said she is not trying to argue with anyone, but hopes that through her personal experience and opinion that her words "offer insight, clarity, and empathy."
"This message is not intended to be passive-aggressive or negative. It's a reminder that there is a real human being with real feelings at the center of all this," she said.
Last May 28, the MGI organization announced the termination of Gupta’s title as Miss Grand International 2024.
In an announcement on their Facebook page, the pageant decided to revoke the title from Gupta due to her "failure to fulfill her assigned duties, engagement in external projects without prior approval from the organization, and her refusal to participate in the scheduled trip to Guatemala."
The pageant's first runner-up, CJ Opiaza of the Philippines, will take her place.