AN UGLY REALITY BEHIND BEAUTY QUEENS
Bullying boss ‘broke’ Miss USA: insiders
FROWNING ACHIEVEMENT: Ex-Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava (below) gave up her title this week — following the resignation of Miss USA Noelia Voigt two days earlier — and sources say that the organization, under the leadership of CEO Laylah Rose Loiczly (top left), was in such disarray that Srivastava was left with a broken crown (above) for several months.
Before two beauty queens hung up their sashes this week, the Miss USA organization was in such disarray that Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava had a broken crown — for months.
CEO Laylah Rose Loiczly didn’t have the money to fix it, sources said.
“She let Uma have a broken crown since October. Laylah didn’t uphold her end of the contract,” Claudia Michelle, a former Miss USA social media manager who resigned on May 3, told The Post.
Insiders say funds were tight because Loiczly lost a sponsorship deal from Fred Mouawad, the long-time maker of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA crowns, when she allegedly sat a member of his staff in the nosebleeds at an event.
Pageant of chaos
The organization has been hit by the most recent Miss USA titleholder, Noelia Voigt, quitting and accusing Loiczly of “bullying and harassment” in a bombshell resignation letter obtained by The Post on Monday — and two days later, Srivastava also announced she had stepped down.
Loiczly bought the troubled Miss USA franchise from the Miss Universe organization last year, calling it a vehicle for female empowerment, and made herself its chair and CEO.
But critics told The Post she is a “narcissist” and “pageant mom” who was allegedly ousted from a job as a Catholic school cheerleader coach in 2019 over a hidden Playboy past.
The Post has learned that in 2009 she was on the cover of a Playboy-owned magazine in India, called Royal, posing in revealing clothing under the name Laylah Figueroa.
There is no indication from the cover that she posed nude for the magazine.
A pageant industry expert told The Post, “Everybody has something they’re not proud of, but if you’re going to position yourself as Mother Teresa, then be that. Otherwise, be who you are.”
Indeed, sources with knowledge told The Post that, when an employee flagged the cover two weeks ago, Loiczly dismissed it as Photoshopped.
The cover has been online since 2009.
“She yelled and said it wasn’t real, it’s Photoshopped. It can’t be her, she had children and she never had boobs that small,” a second source told The Post.
Then, when Miss Teen USA’s father brought the matter to the Miss Universe organization’s vice president of international relations, Mario Bucaro Flores, he allegedly dismissed it as “AI and Photoshopped,” the former staffer told The Post.
‘Missing money’
Loiczly is also accused of failing to pay her own staff — and of using Miss USA to promote herself.
When Miss USA was due to appear in Charlotte, NC, it was Locizly’s face that was put on a local billboard.
Two former assistant national directors, an insider told The Post, were getting paid $1,000 a month with no benefits, and late checks.
“They both resigned and Laylah sent out a memo on April 29 saying they were parting ways,” Claudia Michelle told The Post. For four months of work since January, Michelle said she was only paid $2,000.
Loiczly, 45, is a three-times married pageant mom from the suburbs of Cleveland with a colorful résumé.
In 2008, when she was married to second husband Peter Figueroa — who declined to comment to The Post — she was the manager of the Slender You figure shaping spa in Chardon, Ohio as well as a Playboy golf girl.
In 2011, she worked for the little-known sports show “Cavaliers Gab” as a rethe porter on NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. She is now married to her third husband, Tom Loiczly, with a total of six children. In 2018, she was the cheerleader coach to the Geauga Lia ons, squad of girls from Cathoschools lic in Chardon. Loiczly appears to have moved into the pageant business in 2021, naming herself executive producer of her company VIP Pageantry. In 2022, her third husband’s family sold their aerospace manufacturing firm to a larger competitor — and that fall, Loiczly approached Thom Brodeur, a pageant industry consultant, to help her draft a proposal to buy the Miss USA franchise.
Brodeur said he was promised a role as president of Miss USA, but instead, she ghosted him and flew to Thailand to meet with trans Thai business mogul Anne Jakkaphong’s JKN Global Group, which owns Miss Universe. There Loiczly secured the Miss USA franchise.
‘Epitome of narcissist’
In August last year, Loiczly, calling herself Laylah Rose, officially took over the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA licenses.
Now, sources say, she’s driving the pageants into the ground.
“She bought the house and couldn’t furnish it,” Brodeur said.
An insider close to the situation told The Post, “She is the epitome of a narcissist.
“It’s not about the girls. It’s not about the pageant and what it stands for: it’s about what she can get out of it.
“With all this history on who she is, how can Miss Universe continue to let her run this organization?”