Pacific

Ugly scenes exposed at Tongan beauty pageant

15:03 pm on 9 July 2019

There were ugly scenes at the crowning of Tonga's beauty queen over the weekend with the outgoing winner saying she will not tolerate fakeness as she called out bullying from pageant organisers.

Twenty year old law student Kalo Funganitao used her hand-over speech at the Miss Heilala event in Nuku'alofa on Friday to highlight abusive treatment during her year as the representative of an event which is supposed to encourage women.

Jenny Meyer reports.

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Kalo Funganitao during her speech. Photo: Kalo Funganitao