Miss Colombia Breaks Her Silence About the Miss Universe 2015 Snafu

It was the mix-up heard round the world universe: Steve Harvey announced and crowned the wrong winner at Sunday’s Miss Universe pageant—on live television no less. After getting confused over the results card, Harvey announced that Miss Colombia (Ariadna Gutierrez) had won the title, only to realize moments later that he was mistaken. The real winner was Miss Philippines (Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach), which left Miss Colombia de-crowned and confused (just like the rest of us). And while the mortifying moment has resulted in both a profuse apology from Steve Harvey and a ton of memes from the depths of the Internet, Miss Colombia was noticeably silent following the aftermath—until now, that is.

The Miss Universe runner-up took to Instagram to express her feelings about the mix-up, starting by sending her appreciation for the outflow of support. “After the storm comes the calm,” she wrote in her lengthy caption. “I want to thank each and every one of you who have sent messages of support and strength. Every one of you has become an incredible human being in my book and I am the most fortunate and thankful for having the support—not only from one country but from the whole entire world.”

Miss Colombia continued on, writing how the snafu was part of her “destiny.” “Your destiny is written for you. And my destiny was this,” she shared. “I was able to bring happiness to my country after becoming Miss Universe for only a couple of minutes… Today because of that COLOMBIA and the LATIN COMMUNITY are being talked about in every corner of the world.”

And ever the dutiful pageant queen, Miss Colombia extended her congratulations to the woman who took her crown, Miss Philippines. “I also want to congratulate the Philippines for their new Miss Universe,” Gutierrez wrote. “The happiness that you must be feeling must be incredible. Life continues and in the future we will find out why things happen the way they happen.”

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