This was what former beauty queen Venus Raj answered during the question and answer portion of Miss Universe 2010. She didn’t end up winning the crown as she settled for Fourth Runner-Up in the competition.
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Venus’s answer has become such a hit on social media that various netizens and artists have referenced it at one point in their lives. Despite gaining popularity from the incident, Venus admitted she regretted it because she found it embarrassing.
“Nung una, naiinis ako kapag naririnig ko iyon. Kasi hindi ko alam kung it was just an expression or hindi ko alam kung kinukutya ba ako because I fumbled on that Q&A. So parang feeling ko, grabe naman sila paulit-ulit. Parang ganun,” she previously shared in an interview with Toni Gonzaga.
Venus admitted that she would’ve definitely answered differently.
“Feeling ko hindi ko siya na-communicate in a manner that I really want to communicate to people. And English is not our first language so may translation pang nangyayari sa utak ko,” she explained.
While she may not have won the third crown for the Philippines then, it was during her reign that the country broke the drought in placing in the prestigious pageant. She began the 12-year placement streak of the country in Miss Universe, which only ended during Celeste Cortesi’s time.
The Philippines has since won two more Miss Universe crowns––Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray––and has shown the rest of the world that Filipinos have both beauty and brains to be among the best in pageantry.