The winner of Sri Lanka’s biggest beauty prize has suffered head injuries after a brawl broke out on stage.
Beauty queen Pushpika De Silva won the “Mrs Sri Lanka” title at a ceremony on national TV on Sunday.
Moments later, the 2019 winner seized Mrs De Silva’s crown, claiming she could not be awarded the title because she was divorced.
The prize has now been returned to Mrs De Silva, after pageant organisers confirmed she is not a divorcee.
Judges named Ms De Silva the 2021 winner at the Mrs Sri Lanka final in a theatre in Colombo on Sunday night.
But the 2019 winner, Caroline Jurie, stripped Mrs De Silva of her crown, citing a pageant rule that competitors must be married and not divorced.
“There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place,” Mrs Jurie told the audience.
She placed the crown on the runner-up, prompting a tearful Mrs De Silva to walk off stage, a video of the incident showed.
The organisers have apologised to Mrs De Silva, who says she is separated, but not divorced.
In a Facebook post Mrs De Silva said she went to hospital to be treated for head injuries after the incident.
She said she would take legal action for the “unreasonable and insulting” way she was treated.
“I’m still an un-divorced woman,” De Silva wrote. “A true queen is not a woman who snatches another woman’s crown, but a woman who secretly sets another woman’s crown!”
The national director of Mrs Sri Lanka World, Chandimal Jayasinghe, said that the crown would be returned to Mrs De Silva on Tuesday.
“We are disappointed,” Mr Jayasinghe said. “It’s very embarrassing for us.”
The Mrs Sri Lanka World beauty pageant is a major contest in the country. The prime minister’s wife was among the guests at the ceremony.