On August 18, 2026, a public controversy surrounding the Miss Universe Belize pageant’s finalist selection process has prompted a formal response from the organization’s leadership, as Destiny Wagner, the executive director of Miss Universe Belize, took to Facebook late Monday to publicly push back against widespread claims of rigged results while acknowledging an honest production mistake that led to the unexpected Top Six announcement.
In her candid statement, Wagner did not shy away from the flaws of this year’s competition, admitting that not every element of the event ran smoothly. “Was everything perfect? No! We are learning. We are growing. We are adapting. This has been a tremendous learning experience for me personally,” she wrote, framing the incident as a growing opportunity for both her and her team.
Wagner clarified that the decision to name six finalists instead of the originally scheduled five was entirely an accidental production error, not a deliberate manipulation of the results. She confirmed that contestant Caleigh-Rose West rightfully earned her spot in the official Top Five, and the extra finalist was added by mistake. “It should not have happened, and I sincerely apologize to the delegates and everyone watching who was understandably confused,” she said, firmly denying any allegations of foul play. “There was NO sabotage, manipulation, predetermined result, or alteration of scores.”
Explaining why the organizers opted to keep all six contestants on stage rather than correcting the error immediately, Wagner noted that the mistake was not the fault of the extra contestant, and she chose not to publicly humiliate the young competitor by eliminating her after she had already been announced as a finalist.
Wagner also attributed the mistake to the tight turnaround the organization faced after a change in ownership: Miss Universe Belize was recently acquired by an El Salvador-based company, leaving organizers just seven weeks to pull the entire national production together. Coordinating teams, logistics and communication across different countries and time zones in such a compressed schedule created avoidable miscommunications that the team will address moving forward, she said. “I am human. My team is human. Mistakes were made, and we will learn from them,” she added.
However, Wagner’s statement has failed to fully quell public criticism, as many social media users have pointed out that she ignored a second major controversy that sparked backlash online. Multiple commenters on Wagner’s Facebook post questioned the pageant’s use of Guatemala’s iconic Tikal monument as a background for a segment meant to celebrate Belizean national heritage, a point Wagner made no mention of in her address, leaving the public still waiting for an explanation on that issue.