Mileidy Materano, the Venezuelan born beauty who won the Miss TT Grand International Pageant and was due to represent T&T at the Miss Grand International event in Vietnam, has stepped down.
This follows widespread criticism of her being chosen to represent T&T in the first place, since she is a non-national.
However, her attorneys, during a news conference on Wednesday, said that she will not be going to Vietnam to represent T&T next month because of a problem with sponsorship.
Lead attorney, Wayne Sturge, said Materano was of the understanding that the local pageant holder, Stolen Productions Ltd, would be responsible for sponsorship to Vietnam. With the final pageant now weeks away, Materano was unable to find appropriate sponsorship while she and her team had already spent some $60,000 on her journey so far.
Sturge said had she “been advised of this onerous stipulation in advance, she would not have taken part in the local pageant”.
He also indicated during yesterday’s news conference that Materano’s team had received communication from Stolen Productions, which that company wished to keep private.
Sturge said while there was some room for discussion between the parties, there was a strong possibility of litigation.
TT will now be represented by the first runner up, Rebecca Hislop, who represented St. Joseph.
Rebecca Hislop