Miss Universe Jamaica 2018

Uzuri International Responds to Miss Universe Jamaica 2017 Accusations

Update: August 29, 2018

Outgoing Miss Universe Jamaica, Davina Bennett was not present to crown her successor, Emily Maddison. Davina said that she was not invited to the ceremony by Uzuri International.

Read the full statement from Uzuri International below:

"It is very unfortunate that a statement was released to give the imprussion that Uzuri International Limited and the Miss Universe Jamaica Organization "chose" to exclude Miss Davina Bennett from the Miss Universe Jamaica Coronation show on Friday August 24, 2018.

The fact is that there is nothing that we would have wanted more than to have Davina Bennett at the grand coronation show. We spent a considerable amount of time to prepare Davina for the Miss Universe Pageant, where she represented Jamaica well and became the 2nd Runner-up to Miss Universe. The Miss Universe Jamaica titleholder does not have to be specially invited to the grand coronation cererony In fact, it is the duty of each Miss Universe Jamaica title holder to attend the grand coronation show, to hand over her sash to the incoming title winner. Therefore, it is unfortnate that this did not happen this year.

However, it should be clear to all Jamaicans who folow Davina on social media, that she has made it clear to us that she has chosen to disassociate herself frem the Miss Universe Jamaica Organiation and Uzuri International Unlimited. You will note from the social media posts from Ms. Bennett that immediately upon her return from the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas, she dropped references to her title as Miss Universe Jamaica and has only kept her title as the 2nd Runner-up to Miss Universe. Additionally, earlier this year Davina made a podt on Instagram in which she sought to distance herself from the Miss Universe Jamaica Organization and asked us to stop posting contents about her on our social media pages.

In light of what has transpired as outlined above, it is clearly not true that we "chose" to exclude Davina from the grand coronation ceremony.

As an organization, we are happy to have provided Davina with the platform from which she now propels her career as a model and we wish her the best in her future endeavours. Davina's reign as Miss Universe Jamaica has come to an end and on August 24, 2018, we crowned Miss Emily Maddison as Miss Universe Jamaica. We intend to focus our energy on ensuring that we prepare her well for Miss Universe. We ask for the support of all Jamaicans as we once again seek to capture the Miss Universe crown with Miss Emily Maddison."