Single mother makes history, surpasses Ky Duyen to become Miss MU runner-up thanks to this "trick"

At the recent Miss Universe season, Ileana Márquez from Venezuela was one of the names that caught the attention of beauty fans, because she was the first mother to win the runner-up title of the contest.

On November 16, the 73rd Miss Universe 2024 finals officially concluded in Mexico with the victory belonging to the representative of Denmark - Victoria Kjær Theilvig. The remaining 4 runners-up are beauties from: Nigeria, Mexico, Thailand and Venezuela.

Among them, 4th runner-up Ileana Márquez surprised everyone when she became the first mother to win a national competition, enter the Top 5 and win the Miss Universe award. This year, for the first time, the beauty pageant has no age limit, allowing married women with children to participate.

In the behavioral round, when Ileana Márquez received the question: "Describe an ideal woman in today's society and what do you have in common with her?", she replied: "The ideal woman that I want to share with you is the 125 girls participating in this contest. We have left behind many things to be here together, respecting and accompanying each other."

At that time, many viewers believed that the Venezuelan beauty could have achieved higher results if she had answered questions in English instead of through an interpreter. Regardless of her foreign language ability, she was considered one of the most outstanding contestants in this year's competition with an impressive height of 1.77m and an attractive performance style.

During her two-week participation in Miss Universe in Mexico, Ileana Márquez left an impression with her unique and dynamic beauty and was one of the contestants who attracted the most interaction on social networks with 657,000 followers on her Instagram account. Coming to the contest, she wanted to convey the message: "Never stop believing in yourself and always move forward" to mothers who are pursuing their dreams.

Before the final, Ileana was also ranked by many beauty sites as one of the Top 10 potential candidates of the season. This beauty is 28 years old, graduated from Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo Institute of Technology in Valencia, Venezuela, majoring in Primary Education. Besides working as a model and MC in her home country, she is also a teacher.

Born and raised in a working-class family, Ileana learned the meaning of independence early on. In an interview with Hola, the beauty queen said she had a hard time giving birth at the age of 16, but luckily she had the support of her family.

Conflicts in her marriage made Ileana a single mother, but she overcame many prejudices and challenges in her career and life. Instead of giving up on her dream, she became more determined to assert herself, turning difficulties into motivation for success.

"Being a mother at a very young age changed me as I faced a society where I did not fit the standards. However, I grew up, studied, worked and moved forward in a positive direction. Now I feel proud to be the mother of Guadalupe Antonella, who is and will be my most important motivation to continue growing," Ileana confided.

From her own experience, the beauty born in 1996 participates in activities in an organization that supports young people, helping them prevent early pregnancy. In addition, she also accompanies many young mothers with unwanted children, helping them overcome difficult times.

Ileana Márquez's daughter is now 12 years old. She is her biggest motivation when competing in beauty pageants. When she won the Miss Universe Venezuela 2023 crown, the beauty queen was opposed by many domestic audiences but remained optimistic and said she did not care about the criticism.

"At first, people's opinions were quite harsh and it hurt me a lot. But then I understood that what people said did not reflect the real me, because they did not know me. I turned this into strength. When you know who you are, nothing can affect you," said the single mother.

Perhaps, thanks to this inspirational story, Ileana successfully scored points in the eyes of the judges. Combined with her beauty and performance skills, she defeated more than 100 contestants, including Ky Duyen, to enter the Top 5 and win the 4th runner-up position of Miss Universe 2024.

Ky Duyen is out of top 12 MU, Huong Giang said exactly 2 sentences, netizens commented enthusiastically Snow11:08:08 18/11/2024After Ky Duyen stopped at the Top 30 Miss Universe 2024, Huong Giang had a notable share on her personal page, receiving a huge number of interactions. Before that, she expressed her joy when her junior entered the top.