In a recent interview, Miss Universe Philippines Ahtisa Manalo shared that the Miss Universe competition was between her and Miss Côte d’Ivoire Olivia Yace.
The 2025 edition of the Miss Universe pageant has been embroiled in back-to-back controversies, including fans accusing the Miss Universe Organisation of not selecting a well-deserving title winner and instead choosing Fatima Bosch, who was not a fan favourite.
Ahtisa Manalo and Olivia Yace represented their countries, the Philippines and Côte d’Ivoire, respectively, during Miss Universe 2025.
In an interview podcast with Filipino comedian and host Vice Ganda, Miss Universe Philippines Ahtisa Manalo was quoted as saying that she hoped to win and thought the competition was between her and Miss Universe Côte d’Ivoire, Olivia Yace, as she could hear the other contestants’ answers.
What did Miss Universe Philippines say?
In a podcast shared on YouTube on December 21, Miss Universe Philippines confessed that during the pageant, which was hosted in Thailand, she felt that the Question and Answer round belonged to her and Côte d’Ivoire‘s Olivia Yace.
According to Philstar.com, a Filipino daily, Ahtisa told Vice Ganda, as translated into English, “Of course, I was hoping that I would win. I thought it was between me and Cote d’Ivoire during that night because I was able to hear everyone’s answer…I didn’t even watch them because when you’re there, when you’re competing, you focus on yourself, you don’t focus on other people. But when it’s Q&A, of course, you can’t do anything, so you just listen. So I thought it was between me and Cote d’Ivoire.”
The Olivia Yace controversy
A few weeks after the Miss Universe 2025 finale, in an interview, MUO president Raul Rocha had allegedly implied that visa restrictions (needing visas for 175 countries) were a factor that hindered Miss Côte d’Ivoire (Olivia Yace) from winning the 2025 crown, a comment that caused significant social media backlash.
Raul said during the interview, as translated into English, as per a November 25 report by People, “She’s going to be the Miss Universe who spent a whole year in an apartment because of the cost of the visa process with lawyers. Some of them require six months’ notice. The year’s already gone, right?”