COLOMBO: Puspika De Silva who was forcibly dethroned few minutes after she was crowned as Mrs Sri Lanka, has regained her Crown on Tuesday.
The Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 National Pageant held at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre on April 04 came to a chaotic conclusion as the contestant initially crowned as Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 was de-crowned by the reigning Mrs. World claiming that the winning contestant was not eligible to hold the title.
Pushpika de Silva was crowned as the new Mrs. Sri Lanka at the pageant only for the crown to be snatched from her and passed on to the first runner-up over allegations of divorce.
“ The Mrs.world International pageant will go ahead in Sri Lanka as scheduled in December and the recent incident where the reigning Mrs World, Caroline Jurie removed her crown from the same stage will not have any impact,”National Director for Mrs.Sri Lanka for Mrs.world, Chandimal Jayasinghe said at a press conference held at the Kingsbury on Tuesday.
After returning the Mrs Sri Lanka crown back to Pushpika De Silva, who was uncrowned by Jurie on Sunday night on allegations that she was a divorcee, Chandimal said this incident would have no effect on the Mrs. World pageant, and it would go ahead in Sri Lanka as planned.
“There is no change in plans there by the Mrs World organisation that is why they have accepted the crown being given back to Pushpika De Silva. Further, Pushpika is not divorced and till the conclusion of the Mrs Sri Lanka pageant if the contestant is not divorced then she deserves to contest. If she is separated, it is irrelevant,” Chandimal said.
However, the Mrs World Inc. on Tuesday told the Daily Mirror that contestants who are selected to contest for the Mrs World international pageant will be accepted only if they are married and the Daily Mirror learns that Pushpika’s divorce case is expected to be taken up in June/July, six months ahead of the international pageant in December.
However, Mrs World Inc has expressed disappointment at reigning Mrs World Caroline Jurie’s behaviour in uncrowning Pushpika in such an ad-hoc manner and has asked Jurie to issue an apology which Jurie is yet to do.
Julie arrived at the Cinnamon Gardens Police last morning to record a statement after a complaint was lodged against her by Pushpika and Jurie’s brother told reporters that Jurie will address the media this week and give her version of the details.
Several attempts to contact Jurie for a comment directly failed.
Pushpika in the meantime, who was hospitalised the day before with ‘scalp injuries’ as claimed by her assistant, appeared in front of the media yesterday and said she will use her crown to promote single mothers in Sri Lanka and said being separated from her partner was not a reason to disqualify a contestant. (With inputs from Daily Mirror)
