“To my fellow Miss USA sisters, I believe it’s crucial for us to stand united for the future of the organization and the incoming class of 2024 and beyond,” Gankiewicz, who held the Miss USA title for three months, said in a social media statement at the time. Comments were limited on the joint announcement, which was a collaborative effort by the Miss USA, Miss Hawaii USA and Gankiewicz ‘s Instagram accounts.
Gankiewicz told Fox News in an interview published Friday that she wanted to “see for myself what’s going on with the Miss USA organization and just see for myself if there were any of those allegations that were true.”
“Now that I’ve been Miss USA for almost three months, I can now say that that was all false. The organization is amazing,” Gankiewicz added. “It’s just so crazy to me that one person could have this experience and make up all these crazy lies.”
Last week, she defended the organization in an interview with News Nation , claiming the former titleholders’ allegations of bullying were “actually the other way around.”
On Saturday, reps for Voigt and Srivastava issued a statement regarding Gankiewicz’s recent interviews, claiming the former runner-up has “been attempting to discredit and invalidate the experiences” of the former titleholders.
“We are deeply concerned that Savannah has chosen this significant occasion to undermine the voices of these two brave young women, who have tried to share their reasons for stepping down although bound to a very strict NDA,” the statement read. “Both former titleholders stand firmly behind their decisions and have moved on, and we urge the rest of the Miss USA organization and current reigning to do the same.”
Both former titleholders have posted their own statements on social media.
“I firmly believe it is inappropriate to comment on situations that we were not part of, and certainly don’t have the full story about,” Voigt said in a written statement on her Instagram story. “If the intention is to empower women, why the need to invalidate their feelings and experiences, and question the character of those who … have stepped away and lost their dream, or their career?”
She continued: “This week is about the contestants and their once in a lifetime experience competing at nationals, not about the drama surrounding the organization or trying to prove who is right or wrong, while one side is contractually silenced.”
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Gankiewicz wrote in her own Instagram story statement that she is “not stating that anyone’s experience is invalid,” according to People . “Rather, I state that my personal experience was not one of a toxic working environment. That is the allegation I am referring to.”
Contributing: Naledi Ushe, Brendan Marrow, KiMi Robinson
