Two Miss France contestants expelled over 'offensive remarks'

Two women who competed for the Miss France crown at the weekend have been removed from the organization after a video emerged of them insulting fellow beauty queens, organizers announced.

Miss Provence and Miss Aquitaine, representing areas in the south and southwest of France, saw their titles withdrawn by their regional committees after they were caught calling their rivals for the national award "fat bitches."

A video filmed by Miss Aquitaine Ainhoa Lahitete backstage at Saturday's televised event was posted online on Sunday, fracturing the image of an organization that seeks to promote the idea of sisterhood between contestants.

Lahitete can be seen talking into her phone criticizing the choice of the 12 semi-finalists, leading Miss Provence Julie Zitouni to interject and call them "fat bitches."

Lahitete adds: "Not all, but a lot of them."

"These offensive remarks and this behavior run completely contrary to the values that our committees strive to uphold," the regional committees of Provence and Aquitaine said in a joint statement.

"The role of a regional Miss is to be an ambassador for her region, a figure of seriousness, respect, and responsibility," their statement added, saying that their decision had the support of the Miss France organization.

"We wish to highlight that Julie and Ainhoa have issued public apologies, as well as to the concerned candidates, and we acknowledge this," said Lydia Podossenoff and Eric Laurens, regional delegates for the Provence Cote d'Azur and Aquitaine regions. 

In their statement, they also strongly condemned the "wave of cyberviolence and harassment that Julie and Ainhoa have been subjected to since the video was released." 

Lahitete wrote on Instagram that her video was meant to remain private, but she had "approved of unacceptable remarks by another Miss."

Zitouni posted that her remarks were "clumsy and absolutely do not reflect what I think of the other candidates," adding that her choice of words was intended as slang rather than as an insult. 

Her words—"grosses putes"—translate literally as large or fat prostitutes. 

Miss Tahiti, Hinaupoko Deveze, 23, was crowned Miss France 2026 on Saturday evening among 30 contenders for the title.

Elsewhere in France, First Lady Brigitte Macron was also facing criticism Monday after a private video showed her calling feminist activists who had disrupted a theater production in Paris "stupid bitches."