Who is Miss England winner Milla Magee and why did she quit Miss World 2025 hosted by India? Says she felt like a...

Milla Magee, a British contestant at Miss Word 2025, has sparked an age-old debate about beauty pageants after quitting the popular contest midway and making sensational allegations against its organisers. Magee, 24, who was last year crowned Miss England, has walked out of the competition being held in Hyderabad, Telangana. Her decision to quit the pageant is being seen as a major moment in its 74-year history. Let us tell you more about Magee here.

Pageant 'stuck in past'
Magee, who is the first Miss England titleholder to quit the global contest, has called it "outdated" and "exploitative." In an interaction with British tabloid The Sun, she said, "The point was to do good, promote change and make a difference. But it became obvious that just wasn’t going to happen."
"As far as I could see it hasn’t changed and is stuck in the past. Morally, I couldn’t be a part of it," she stated.

'Felt like a prostitute'
Magee shared the final straw came when she and fellow contestants were asked to entertain middle-aged men as a "thank you" for funding the show. 
"I found that unbelievable. I remember thinking, 'This is so wrong.' I didn’t come here to be farmed out for people’s entertainment...They made me feel like a prostitute," she told the paper. Adding that contestants were treated with "little respect," she concluded that Miss World "needs to change."

Miss World issues statement
The Miss World Organisation said in an official statement that UK media outlets had published "false and defamatory statements, allegedly made by Milla Magee."
It claimed that Magee left the competition due to a "family emergency involving her mother’s health." The organisation added it "remains committed to truth, dignity, and the values of Beauty With a Purpose."

Magee previously slammed body labels
Magee, who was born in Cornwall and grew up in London, is a trained lifeguard and keen surfer. After winning Miss England in 2024, some media outlets described her as the first "plus size" titleholder. But Magee openly challenged body stereotypes. "It's about embracing whatever we've been born with and it's still beautiful," she told the BBC in an interview last year.