Goodbye to a Dream
Fearing Scandal, N.C. Beauty Queen Resigns
July 29 — Miss North Carolina said she dropped out of the race for Miss America after her ex-boyfriend wrote to pageant officials suggesting they ask her about two photographs in which she appeared nude.
Rebekah Revels, a 24-year-old woman who was crowned Miss North Carolina a month ago, resigned last Tuesday.
She submitted her resignation to state pageant officials after learning that a former boyfriend made defaming remarks about her character in an e-mail to the Miss America organization. Miss America pageant officials said that Revels resigned of her own free will, but she described it as sort of a pre-emptive strike.
"The Miss America pageant was not going to let me compete because they feel I breached the moral clause of their contract, after my ex-boyfriend emailed them and said 'ask her about two nude photos,'" Revels told Good Morning America .
A Bad Break-Up
Her former boyfriend had surprised her by taking the photos while she was changing, Revels said. The photos depicted her nude from the waist up, and showed her breasts and her face. The couple had a "very bad, prolonged break-up," and the former boyfriend, whom she would not name, was physically and emotionally abusive, Revels said.
Revels, who is Lumbee Indian, would have had a shot at becoming the first Native American to ever win Miss America.
Officials from the Miss America Organization said that Revels voluntarily chose to resign from her position. Her situation was discussed at a meeting of the organization's national Board of Directors, where it was revealed that the photographs had been taken, and could be made public.
The pageant's board of directors told the Miss North Carolina officials that if the photographs existed and put her in violation of the contestant contract then she would be ineligible to compete at the national level.
The contract prohibits contestants from "engaging in any activity that could reasonably be characterized as dishonest, immoral or indecent and from conducting themselves in any manner that is inconsistent with the standards and dignity of the Miss America Program," a statement from the Miss America Organization said.
Not Like Williams' Case
After North Carolina pageant officials relayed the national organization's stance to Revels, she resigned.
In 1984, Vanessa Williams, the first African-American to ever win the Miss America crown, resigned from the post, after nude photos that had been taken several years before she became Miss America surfaced. Revels said her situation is different from that of Williams, who had posed for the nude photos.
In regards to the morality clause in the Miss America contract, Revels said the contract is "subjective, and that is their interpretation." She doesn't condone the photos, and admits that they were a mistake.
Revels, who was Miss Fayetteville, sang a Puccini aria to win Miss North Carolina. She was a high school English teacher and planned to use the $12,000 scholarship from the NC title to pursue advanced degrees. She still plans to continue with her plan to seek a master's degree.
After competing in beauty contests since she was 2 years old, her choice to drop out was not easy.
"It was a very hard decision," Revels said. "But I wanted to save my family and myself from going through a bad situation."
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