A few days after Miss World founder Eric Morley died, his widow Julia received a call from Donald Trump. "I was in the office trying to sort out a few things when the phone rang. It was Trump, who I'd never met but who'd known Eric, and these were his
Miss World "not ready" for plus-size contestants says 80-year-old woman behind the contest
Daily Telegraph UK
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SANYA, CHINA - DECEMBER 08: Miss Mexico Vanessa Ponce de Leon waves after winning the 68th Miss World contest final on December 8, 2018 in Sanya, Hainan Province of China. (Photo by Visual China Group
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"I never felt comfortable with all those women in bikinis," shudders Morley, a youthful, sparkling-eyed brunette who causes ripples of excitement in The Ivy restaurant by turning up to meet me with the current Miss World in tow.
"It was so unnecessary. And they used to get marched across the stage like little soldiers and told to turn to the left and right. But when I asked the BBC, who were airing the contest back then, whether perhaps we could do something different, I was told: 'Darling, all people want to see are tits and bums.'"
And, of course, the would-be Mr Worlds never had to strip off? "Oh, they take it all off without you even asking," Morley chuckles, "it's hard to get them to keep their clothes on." (Vanessa Ponce, the 27-year-old Mexican model and humanitarian who currently holds the Miss World crown, gives probably the most beautiful eye-roll I've ever seen.)
"I've been helping with their online profiles," Morley continues, "and trying to get them to send me pictures of them reading books. But I've had to keep telling them to put their shirts on. They've worked on their bodies for many years," she shrugs, beautifully. "It's an accomplishment for them."
Despite the existence of Mr World and the active philanthropic focus that Morley has given the contest, she remains a strident defender of the seaside pageant her late husband turned into a national competition to coincide with the Festival of Britain in 1951 – as well as our right to enjoy beauty for beauty's sake.
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"We're so complexed about beauty," Morley laments. "I mean, really pretty pathetic about it. And that's not how the rest of the world feels – just Britain. Tell a Latin girl she's beautiful and she'll thank you. She expects it! But say it to a British girl and they immediately think: 'Why is she saying that?' Certainly, a British girl could never admit to being beautiful. So instead we're apologetic about beauty."
"Especially in this era, beauty is seen as something bad," chimes in Ponce. "How could something so pure, so natural, be bad?"
Looking into the luminous face that's as awe-inspiring as a sunset or gemstone, I'm momentarily flummoxed. Then I remember why people think beauty's bad: isn't it that you did nothing to deserve it? "But there are so many other natural talents you could say the same thing about: intelligence, for example. Talents are handed out, and there is nothing one can do to control that."
Like all talent shows, Miss World has strict rules for participants. And, again, Morley's defence of these is vehement. "Every five years, we have a vote on anything we feel should change. But right now, male and female candidates have to be between 16 and 26, and they cannot be married."
They can't be parents, either: a rule that's currently the cause of a legal dispute between one Veronika Didusenko, who last year was stripped of her Miss Ukraine title after just four days after it was discovered that she had a five-year-old son. Didusenko is now suing for discrimination.
Although Morley can't discuss the case, her explanation of why the rule is in place makes perfect sense. "Whoever is crowned Miss World tomorrow needs to be ready to assume the role immediately," she tells me – and will spend almost all of the following year travelling.
"You can't take a baby into some of the areas we go to. I agree that there should be freedom for women, but when you're working with 140 countries, you're dealing with a whole spectrum of religions and cultures, and I've got to try and make sure they all agree to abide by the same rules."
There are no rules about surgery, which surprises me – given it's surely the equivalent of doping in sport. "Some countries are crazy about sending their eight-year-old girls to have things done," sighs Morley. "And, to me, that's sad, but it's not for me to tell people what to do."
Likewise, there are no 36-24-36 vital statistics imposed on the girls. "We don't have measurements or scales: it's a person thing."
So she'd accept a size-16 contestant? "I'd be perfectly happy with that, yes." And a size 20? Morley winces. "I don't know about that. It's what it looks like. If you keep measuring things, you get fanatical."
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One previous winner whom she won't name "had this amazing hourglass figure – about a 42-inch hip – and after she won Miss World it was the funniest thing, because she was eating like a horse, putting everything away: cheese, bacon, bread." When the designer of a fashion show that Miss 42-Inch-Hip was modelling for called with "a few expletives", telling Morley he was going to have to alter the clothes, the Miss World chairman asked her winner what was going on.
"She told me she was so sorry, but that when she was competing, 'They made me eat an apple in the morning, an apple at lunchtime and an apple in the evening, and sometimes I used to faint. So now I cannot stop eating.' And I thought that was terrible!" Morley cries. "Because we want women who feel like women."
On that note: could a transgender person compete in Miss World? "No, I don't think so," Morley replies with aplomb. "Because you have to think of all the other girls. If they've had gender reassignment surgery, then fine. I just feel that they must have been through a whole lot, so why not be who you want to be? But don't say 'I'm going to be a woman today, so I want to enter this contest', because that's not right.
"If their passport says they're a man or a woman, then I don't care whatever he or she was before. If your passport says you're a man, you're welcome to enter Mr World."