The winner of the 2018 Miss Denver beauty pageant publicly renounced her crown on Friday.
In a message posted to her Instagram account, Kayla Kline said that she was stepping away from her position in solidarity with Miss America Cara Mund, who claimed earlier this year that she was abused by senior leadership of the Miss America Organization.
‘With a heavy heart I resign. I sent my letter to be received at the national level this afternoon. The national organization that the current [Miss America Organization] board of directors has made Miss America into is not one that I recognize. Miss America deserves a voice, and if you can’t hear her, I’ll stand and shout with her.’
Kayla Kline said that she was resigning the title as Miss Denver in solidarity with Miss America Cara Mund
‘With a heavy heart I resign,’ Klein wrote in the post, adding: The national organization that the current MOA board of directors has made Miss America into is not one that I recognize’
In April, Mund resigned as Miss America after claiming she’d been bullied, manipulated and silenced by the pageant’s current leadership, including former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson.
‘Let me be blunt,’ Mund states in the letter, ‘I strongly believe that my voice is not heard nor wanted by our current leadership; nor do they have any interest in knowing who I am and how my experiences relate to positioning the organization for the future.’
The beauty queen continues: ‘Our chair and CEO have systematically silenced me, reduced me, marginalized me, and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on a daily basis.’
‘After a while, the patterns have clearly emerged, and the sheer accumulation of the disrespect, passive-aggressive behavior, belittlement, and outright exclusion has taken a serious toll,’ Mund adds.
Carlson is chairwoman of the Miss America Organization; Regina Hopper is its CEO.
In April, Cara Mund (R) resigned as Miss America after claiming she’s been bullied, manipulated and silenced by the pageant’s current leadership including Gretchen Carlson (L)
The Miss America Organization said in response to the allegations that it would reach out to her directly to address her concerns.
‘The Miss America Organization supports Cara,’ the group said in a statement. ‘It is disappointing that she chose to air her grievances publicly, not privately. Her letter contains mischaracterizations and many unfounded accusations.’
Mund said she’s been left out of interviews, not invited to meetings and called by the wrong name.
When she obliquely hinted at trouble with pageant leadership in an interview earlier this year with The Press of Atlantic City, Mund said she was swiftly punished by having her televised farewell speech cut to 30 seconds, and was told a dress she had been approved to wear in the traditional ‘show us your shoes’ parade cannot be worn.
In a Twitter post made by Carlson last week, the former Fox News host and vocal #MeToo activist wrote that she was ‘surprised and saddened beyond words’ by Mund’s claims.
‘I have never bullied or silenced you,’ Carlson wrote, addressing Mund directly. ‘We’ve acknowledged your grievances and taken many steps to try to make your experience a good one.’
Former Miss America Caressa Cameron-Jackson went on GMA on Monday (left) and demanded that Gretchen Carlson and Miss America Organization CEO Regina Hopper step down. Cameron-Jackson won the title in 2010 (pictured during her coronation, right)
Carlson tweeted out this statement addressing Mund’ claims on Sunday
She continued: ‘Actions have consequences. Friday, as an organization, we learned that $75,000 in scholarships which would have been the first scholarship increase in years is no longer on the table as a direct result of the explosive allegations in your letter.
‘The impact won’t stop there. We are already seeing a negative ripple effect across the entire organization, and I am so concerned that it will dilute the experience for the next woman selected to wear the crown.
On Monday, at least 19 former pageant winners stepped forward to demand that the entire Miss America board resign following Mund’s accusations.
Mund (pictured) said she’s been left out of interviews, not invited to meetings and called by the wrong name
Caressa Cameron-Jackson, who won the Miss America title in 2010, went on Good Morning America Monday and demanded that Carlson and Miss America Organization CEO Regina Hopper step down.
‘I feel as though all of the leadership is complicit in this, and in order for us to move forward and to actually heal, we need to do the right thing right now, so that we can move forward and focus on who’s gonna be crowned Miss America on September 9,’ Cameron-Jackson told GMA’s Paula Faris.
Mund, who was Miss North Dakota and won the crown on a platform of increasing the number of women elected to political office, said she was treated better by the previous Miss America leadership that was forced from power after sending emails ridiculing the appearance, intellect and sex lives of former Miss Americas.
She cites examples of mistreatment including being excluded from the nationally televised announcement that swimsuits were being eliminated — even though she was with Carlson at the TV studio where it was made.
She says pageant handlers ridiculed her clothing choices and chided her for wearing the same outfits too often.
When she reached out to former Miss Americas to see if they had been treated similarly, ‘I was reprimanded by Regina who told me that problems and concerns had to be kept ‘in the family.’ ‘
‘Miss America deserves a voice, and if you can’t hear her, I’ll stand and shout with her,’ Klein said