In June, Brittany Boltinhouse was crowned Miss North Carolina USA. She tearfully accepted her crown and sash in a bedazzled blue dress. A little over a month later, she was dethroned after the Miss USA organization said she had violated its behavior standards.
This week, just before the Miss USA competition got underway, Boltinhouse, 27, sued the national organization and the North Carolina pageant organizers for defamation, saying that the organizers had damaged her reputation.
The filing, brought on Sunday to the Duplin County Superior Court in North Carolina, accuses Miss USA of creating a “false public narrative” and portraying Boltinhouse as an “intolerable bigot to be shunned from public life.” The lawsuit also says that the defendants “lied to the world that Brittany had confessed to being such an intolerable monster.”
Boltinhouse, through a lawyer, declined to be interviewed. She is seeking damages “in an amount to be proven at trial and exceeding $25,000,” according to the filing. Representatives for A Blaize Productions, the company that organizes the Miss North Carolina USA pageant, did not respond to a request for comment, and Miss USA declined to comment.
After Boltinhouse won the state crown, several of her social media posts from 2017 and 2019 were circulated online, showing her using a racial slur. On Aug. 5, Thom Brodeur, the chief executive of Miss USA, issued a statement on Instagram announcing that Boltinhouse’s title had been rescinded. Though the statement did not specify why, it said “the organization “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity.” Brodeur wrote that the organization’s decision was not the result of a “single moment” but rather “conduct over an extended period of time.”
The lawsuit includes social media posts that were resurfaced, including posts of support for President Trump, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the Tate brothers, as well as skepticism about President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s acknowledgment of Transgender Day of Visibility. The suit claims that Boltinhouse was punished for her conservative political beliefs.
The suit argued that Boltinhouse had used the racial slur as slang, and it mentioned that the word appeared in a song that pageant organizers selected to play during the fitness competition, Beyoncé’s “Heated.” The suit also emphasizes that Boltinhouse is of Afro-Latino descent.
The statement posted by Brodeur said Boltinhouse was planning to issue her own statement, one that it said included “accountability and apology,” which the lawsuit says was false and suggested an admission of guilt by Boltinhouse. The suit said A Blaize Productions had sent Boltinhouse a draft statement, which she declined to sign.
The suit describes the media coverage that followed as “devastating,” adding that it “instantly transformed Brittany’s public identity from the newly crowned Miss North Carolina USA into the target of widespread accusations of racism, homophobia, transphobia and bigotry.”
It comes amid a turbulent several years for Miss USA, which has faced allegations of racism and sexual harassment, and has changed ownership several times (including a period when it was owned by Mr. Trump). In 2023, the head of the Miss USA franchise was suspended after accusations of rigging the pageants. In 2024, both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA stepped down within days of each other, a first in the seven-decade history of the pageant, offering little public explanation.
Myla Hadley, the runner-up to Boltinhouse, will represent North Carolina in the Miss USA competition. The CW, which was set to air the pageants, announced just a week before the event that it would no longer be broadcasting the show.
