‘She was absolutely unlikeable.' Former Miss Barbados claims that Miss World 2000 was ‘rigged’ in Priyanka Chopra’s favour

Former Miss Barbados Leilani McConney has just served some scalding hot tea.

The YouTuber who was also a participant of the Miss World pageant of 2000 along with Priyanka Chopra, recently alleged that the competition was completely rigged.

The former beauty queen also claimed Chopra, who was also one of the contestants, was distinctly “unlikeable’’. She also alleged that the ‘Quantico’ star was shown favouritism by the show’s sponsors from the very beginning and the show was “rigged’’ in her favour.


McConney spilled the beans about the 2000 pageant after a similar controversy arose regarding another beauty pageant Miss USA 2022. Contestants of the competition alleged that the show was rigged to make Miss Texas R’Bonney Gabriel, the winner.

McConney revealed that she went through something similar in 2000. She also hinted that Zee TV, which was one of the sponsors of the show during that time, was partial to Indian contestants.

“I literally went through the same thing at Miss World. I was Miss Barbados, and the year I went, Miss India won. Mind you, Miss India had won the previous year (Yukta Mookhey), the sponsor was also ZeeTV, an Indian cable station. Our sashes had ZeeTV on top and then the names of our countries. This is very familiar to me," she said in the video.

She also chronicled the various ways the ‘Mary Kom’ star was shown favouritism by the management. She allegedly got to wear the better quality gowns, got featured more in the newspapers, received food in her room and was allowed to wear a sarong in the swimsuit competition when she expressed her discomfort in wearing a swimsuit. “Apparently she was using some skin tone cream, to even out her skin tone and it was splotchy. It didn't work, her skin was blotchy so she did not want to remove her sarong. So during the actual judgement, she is actually in a dress,” ranted McConney.

McConney also added that while she doesn’t blame Chopra for taking advantage of the situation, she personally found the ‘Bajirao Mastani’ actress “unlikeable’’. My only problem with Priyanka is that getting to know her in the pageant, she was just unlikeable. And she is Meghan Markle’s best friend so go figure," she said.

The video soon went viral on social media. Many Indians, as expected, came out with virtual pitchforks for their ‘Desi Girl’. One reddit user quipped, “She is two decades too late. There was a controversy back then over Priyanka taking Mother Teresa’s name as a living person in the year 2000. The Indian channels extensively discussed it. Except for that one error, she did great in all the other rounds. It was said she made up for that one wrong answer with the total points. It comes across like a sour grapes situation crying foul now, Miss Barbados.”

Chopra, who is also fondly known as PeeCee, went on to have a successful career in Bollywood before moving to the other side of the Atlantic to forge a career in Hollywood. She recently returned to India to launch her haircare line.