When Noelia Voigt, who represented Utah when she won the Miss USA title last fall, relinquished her crown on Monday, she said she was stepping away to protect her “physical and mental well-being.”
According to a new report, Voigt told pageant officials privately that her mental health issues were largely a result of problems she encountered within the Miss USA Organization.
NBC News reported Thursday evening that it obtained the resignation letter Voigt sent to Miss USA officials, in which she accused the pageant’s CEO of not taking an incident of sexual harassment seriously.
“There is a toxic work environment within the Miss USA organization that, at best, is poor management and, at worst, bullying and harassment,” Voigt wrote in the letter, according to NBC News. “This started soon after winning the title of Miss USA 2023.”
In her announcement on Instagram, the 24-year-old Voigt wrote that “in life, I strongly value the importance of making decisions that feel best for you and your mental health. … Sadly, I have made the very tough decision to resign from the title of Miss USA 2023.”
Attempts by The Tribune to contact Voigt this week have been unsuccessful.
People reading Voigt’s lengthy Instagram announcement noticed something unusual: The first letter of each sentence spelled out the words “I AM SiLENCED.”
Two days after Voigt made her resignation public, UmaSofia Srivastava announced that, after “months of grappling with this decision,” she was resigning as Miss Teen USA. Srivastava, who represented New Jersey in the Miss USA-operated teen pageant, wrote on Instagram that “I find that my personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.”
On May 3, the social media director for the Miss USA Organization also resigned. Claudia Michelle posted on Instagram that she has “unfortunately seen a decline in [Voigt’s] mental health since we first met. I feel like her ability to share her story and her platform has been diminished.” Michelle added that “I have firsthand seen the disrespect towards Uma and her family.”
In her resignation letter, NBC News reported, Voigt gave details of an alleged instance of sexual harassment at a Christmas event in Florida. Voigt wrote that she was left alone in a car with a man who “made several inappropriate statements to me about his desire to enter into a relationship with me.”
When Laylah Rose, the president and CEO of Miss USA, was made aware of the situation, Voigt wrote that Rose told her, “We cannot prevent people saying things to you at public appearances, it is, unfortunately, part of the role you’re in as a public figure.”
NBC reported that Voigt also wrote that Rose failed to communicate consistently, and that when she did, she was “often cold and unnecessarily aggressive.”
Voigt wrote “it’s incredibly jarring to be trying to do my job and constantly be threatened with disciplinary action, including taking away my salary, for things that were never discussed with me and, if it related to a public-facing post for example, were causing no issue other than not meeting her personal preference.”
Also, Voigt wrote that Rose badmouthed her to others in the organization, describing her as being “uninterested” in the job of Miss USA. Voigt said she heard that she had been described as “difficult to work with,” and “weaponizing my mental health struggles brought on by my experience as Miss USA 2023, calling me ‘mentally ill’ in a derogatory way.”
In the letter, according to NBC News, Voigt recounted her recent health struggles. She wrote that she has been diagnosed with anxiety, and is taking two medications daily “to manage the symptoms due to consistently being on edge, worrying about what Laylah will pop up with and choose to harass me about daily.”
The toxic work environment Voigt described, she wrote in her letter, made it unsafe for future title holders. “Every statement you have ever put out about [the Miss USA Organization’s] morals and integrity directly contradicts what is happening within the USA organization,” the letter said.
Voigt was crowned Miss USA in September 2023. A Florida native, she had moved to Utah in April 2023 to represent the state in the pageant. In October, she competed in the Miss Universe pageant.
Voigt was the first Utah representative to wear the Miss USA crown in 50 years. She was the first Venezuelan American ever to win the title. Pageantry is an important part of Venezuelan culture — and while she was proud to honor her roots, she told The Tribune in October that she was not representing Venezuela. “I am very much Miss USA,” she said at the time.
Since her resignation, Voigt has continued to make public appearances. On her Instagram account, she posted a video that showed her and Srivastava smiling and dancing at a New York gala Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of Smile Train, a charity Voigt supported as Miss USA that provides cleft-palate surgery to children worldwide. On Thursday, Voigt showed in an Instagram post, she attended another New York event, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of People magazine.
On the video from the Smile Train event, Voigt used a soundbite from the movie “Dazed and Confused,” in which Matthew McConaughey says, “You just got to keep livin’, man — L-I-V-I-N.”
Follow @SeanPMeans