Daven Tamayo

Stepped down or kicked out? Miss Grand International founder, ex-titleholder in messy public feud

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17485002334981748500234144.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Former Miss Grand International 2014 Rachel Gupta (left) and MGI founder Nawat Itsaragrisil. Itsaragrisil/Instagram"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Former Miss Grand International 2014 Rachel Gupta (left) and MGI founder Nawat Itsaragrisil. <em>Itsaragrisil/Instagram</em></span></span></span></div><p>There&#x27;s a new issue that&#x27;s rocking the global pageant scene, and it involves Miss Grand International (MGI) founder Nawat Itsaragrisil and their former titleholder, Rachel Gupta. </p><p>It all started with a statement released by MGI on Wednesday, May 28. The post announced the end of Gupta&#x27;s reign &quot;effective immediately,&quot; citing the Indian beauty queen&#x27;s &quot;failure to fulfill her assigned duties.&quot;</p><p>Shortly after, Gupta aired her side of the issue, saying she has decided to &quot;step down as Miss Grand International 2024 and return my crown.&quot; </p><p>And while she is only 7 months into her reign, she said she could no longer endure the &quot;broken promises, mistreatment, and toxic environment&quot; she&#x27;s experiencing under MGI.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2025/5/28/ph-s-cj-opiaza-poised-to-be-next-miss-grand-international-after-winner-s-reign-terminated-1522">PH&#x27;s CJ Opiaza poised to be next Miss Grand International after winner&#x27;s reign terminated?</a></div><p>Gupta promised to release a video &quot;sharing the details behind this difficult journey.&quot; And a day later, she did -- in the nearly the one-hour YouTube video, titled &quot;The Truth About Miss Grand International - My Story,&quot; she spoke of the things she had to go through as a reigning queen, and what made her decide to cut ties with MGI.</p><p>This, along with Itsaragrisil&#x27;s remarks on his livestreams, just turned their falling out into a messy public feud.</p><div><strong>&#x27;Own food, own clothes, own cash&#x27;</strong></div><p>In her hour-long video, Gupta said she found it &quot;unbelievable&quot; how she was treated by MGI during her stay in Thailand as part of her duties as reigning queen. </p><p>She claims she was made to stay in a &quot;cramped&quot; hotel room, only to be moved to a &quot;dilapidated&quot; house which was about 2 hours away from the city center. </p><p>&quot;They didn&#x27;t give me any way of getting around so I&#x27;m basically stuck in the house until they decide they need me for something,&quot; she said. &quot;They did not give me access to a Thai phone number or anything so I had to go and buy a phone over there.&quot;</p><p>&quot;They did not provide me any food at all... [I thought] maybe I can go grocery shop and cook for myself, but there are no pots and pans [in the house]. I said, &#x27;I&#x27;m vegetarian, can you at least make sure that the fridge is stocked with fruits so I can just cut it and eat it?&#x27;&quot; she recalled. &quot;I had to order food every single day... It would take two hours to come because it&#x27;s so far away.&quot;</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1e2qREEcmVw?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Gupta went on to list the things MGI was not able to provide for her, such as gym access, given that the organization was expecting her to stay fit during her reign.</p><p>The 21-year-old said she even had to beg for a yoga mat, adding that she also had to get her own clothes when attending events as a reigning titleholder. </p><p>&quot;I expected that after I won, I&#x27;d be able to support myself financially with the prize money and everything. [I thought] it&#x27;s like a dream come true,&quot; she said. &quot;It&#x27;s only after I won that I realized that their contract says they will give you the prize money at the end of your reign.&quot;</p><p>&quot;And before that, there&#x27;s just like a monthly stipend, a small amount. I was paid for just the first month and they didn&#x27;t pay me at all after that,&quot; she pointed out. &quot;I would ask my parents to give me money for food because I had to take care of myself.&quot; </p><div><strong>&#x27;They made us sell cheap tacky products&#x27;</strong></div><p>After winning the MGI 2024 crown, Gupta said she intended to use her voice &quot;in a way that matters.&quot; For her, this meant working toward causes that are close to her heart, such as helping underprivileged children.</p><p>But the Indian beauty queen was surprised to find herself selling products on TikTok, upon the orders of Itsaragrisil and the organization.</p><p>&quot;They made us sell these cheap tacky products on TikTok, like we&#x27;re sales girls,&quot; she lamented. &quot;I mean you&#x27;ve crowned queens. We have careers in our country, we do things, we&#x27;re well-respected. And they&#x27;re making us sell cheap products on TikTok because it makes them money. And you can&#x27;t say no because the boss has asked you to do it.&quot;</p><p>&quot;[I&#x27;m] a speaker who wants to talk about issues, who wants to create change in the world, who has so many ideas not just for business but for philanthropic work. And you want her to sell chili paste and chili sauce and random things on TikTok? Seriously?&quot; she asked aloud.</p><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCvn6_5vjo0/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=675&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A415280.2000000477%2C%22ls%22%3A414849.3000000715%2C%22le%22%3A415258.90000009537%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>Given this, Gupta came to the conclusion that MGI&#x27;s &quot;stop the war and violence&quot; initiative is &quot;just a facade,&quot; declaring that all the organization cares about is earning money. </p><p>&quot;Where is the advocacy work? I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;m ready to use my voice, I&#x27;m ready to work with an NGO (non-government organization). But they don&#x27;t want to do that because it doesn&#x27;t make money for them. And I&#x27;ve heard them say, like Nawat literally says that it&#x27;s useless, that people don&#x27;t care about it. &#x27;It&#x27;s not entertaining, and it doesn&#x27;t make money, so we&#x27;re not going to do it.&#x27;&quot;</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m sorry, but it&#x27;s not just about entertainment... That&#x27;s not what pageantry is about. It&#x27;s about being a global public figure that uses her voice for good, not these cheap entertainment tactics,&quot; she stressed. </p><div><strong>&#x27;Constantly harassed, manipulated, ignored&#x27;</strong></div><p>Gupta said she found herself suffering in silence for months as MGI kept threatening to dethrone her if she brought up her concerns or refuse to comply with what the organization is asking her to do.</p><p>&quot;It was impossibly difficult for me,&quot; she said, recalling the time she had to let go of &quot;really big opportunities&quot; as a result of MGI&#x27;s conflict with her agency in India. </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/11/20/miss-grand-india-organization-parts-ways-with-miss-grand-international-1401">Miss Grand India organization parts ways with Miss Grand International</a></div><p>But now, Gupta finally feels &quot;free&quot; after being able to air her side publicly. And while she does not expect everyone to believe her, she hopes that she is able to &quot;shed light on the truth.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I was constantly harassed, manipulated, ignored, and left to fend for myself all while dealing with the intense and immense scrutiny of the public eye... These have been the hardest few months of my life,&quot; she said. &quot;And I know that MGI, right now they will go to any lengths to defame, to malign my name and my image, and destroy my credibility. They will say anything.&quot;</p><div><strong>&#x27;I kicked you out&#x27;</strong></div><p><strong></strong>In a livestream on his personal page, Itsaragrisil pointed out that Gupta&#x27;s reign as MGI 2024 did not end because she stepped down. Rather, she was &quot;kicked out.&quot; </p><p>&quot;I told you we will terminate you already... when I sent the letter to you,&quot; he publicly addressed the Indian beauty queen. &quot;We terminated you first and after like half an hour, you posted after me. You did not resign, I kicked you out.&quot;</p><p>&quot;You are not quality enough, you were never beautiful from the inside,&quot; said the Thai entrepreneur, who is also the executive director of the Miss Universe Organization.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2025/4/23/miss-grand-international-founder-is-new-executive-director-of-miss-universe-1544">Miss Grand Int&#x27;l founder is new executive director of Miss Universe</a></div><p>Reacting to Gupta&#x27;s supposed plans to sue him and MGI, Itsaragrisil said: &quot;Sue me, come and sue me... Come to Thailand.&quot;</p><p>As for her few trips as a reigning queen, the MGI founder said they had a hard time finding work for her because she &quot;is not a real person.&quot;</p><p>&quot;You complained a lot and you complain about my organization, and that the money is too low for you,&quot; he said, promising the public that he will share proof through documents and their exchange of messages.</p><p>&quot;She&#x27;s feeling like a boss. She orders me, she orders Teresa (Teresa Yuphayao Chaivisut, MGI vice president), she orders everybody, oh my God,&quot; he added. &quot;She wants to get it all, she doesn&#x27;t want to pay tax.&quot;</p><p>On Instagram Stories, Itsaragrisil posted a video of the house where Gupta stayed in Thailand, asking: &quot;Are you sure it is small for you?&quot;</p><p>He also shared a copy of the letter that ordered Gupta to remove all content related to MGI on her social media platforms.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1748500586495grab.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Screenshots from Instagram Stories: @nawat.tv"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><em>Screenshots from Instagram Stories: @nawat.tv</em></span></span></span></div><p>As their public feud continues, the pageant world is awaiting news about the new MGI queen. </p><p>The Philippines&#x27; CJ Opiaza is next in line as first runner-up, but an official announcement has yet to be made.</p>

<p>There's a new issue that's rocking the global pageant scene, and it involves Miss Grand International founder Nawat Itsaragrisil and their former titleholder, Rachel Gupta.</p>

There's a new issue that's rocking the global pageant scene, and it involves Miss Grand International founder Nawat Itsaragrisil and their former titleholder, Rachel Gupta.