Miss France Drama Over The Weekend Proves Beauty Pageants Could Use More Trash Talking

A leaked video put a Miss France contestant, who failed to crack the Top 12, in the spotlight over the weekend. Talking trash about an opponent, or being perceived to have done so, is what sparked all the drama.

Miss Provence 2025 Julie Zitouni was seen in a video alongside another contestant, Miss Aquitaine 2025 Ainhoa Lahitete, who wasn’t among the 12 finalists either, letting off some steam about being left out.

Miss Tahiti Hinaupoko Deveze reacts as she is crowned by Miss France 2025 Angelique Angarni-Filopon during the Miss France 2026 beauty pageant on December 6, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP via Getty Images)

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

In the clip, Lahitete can be heard asking, reports the Daily Mail, "Sorry, but what is this Top 12? I don't mean to be a sore loser, but what is this Top 12?"

Zitouni pops into view after the questions are asked and replies, "Just a bunch of whores." She then kisses Lahitete on the cheek and disappears.

Lahitete posted the video to her private Snapchat where it was snagged and posted by a celebrity blogger. That’s enough drama to force an apology, but should it have?

Beauty Pageants Could Use The Added Entertainment Of Some Trash Talk

These ladies are battling it out with one another for a shot at becoming Miss France. Are they supposed to keep the backstage tension to themselves?

Should she have said it? Probably not, but it should have been said out in the open, not in a private Snapchat video or muttered under her breath.

This only leads to an apology/explanation that Miss Provence tries to twist into a positive. She wasn’t calling them whores, she was calling them the lucky ones.

"A private video is circulating and I would like to react immediately. The words I said are awkward and absolutely do not reflect what I think of the candidates," she reportedly said.

"I used the word ‘pute’ in a colloquial sense which, in my way of speaking, simply meant ‘the lucky ones.’"

I don’t think we need folding chairs or anything backstage, not yet anyway. But why not some healthy trash talking? You see a Top 12 you don’t agree with, and you call it out.

It’s healthy, it’s entertaining, and it cuts out the unnecessary apology. Yes, beauty pageants are about beautiful women pouring it all into a competition, but it’s also about entertainment.

She added, "It wasn't an insult. But it is not a vocabulary that has its place in Miss France, and I fully recognize it. I understand that this may be shocking, and I sincerely apologize."

There’s more, but you get the point. It was some trash talk she probably didn’t mean in the heat of the moment and beauty pageants need more of it. By the way, congratulations to the new Miss France 2026 Hinaupoko Devèze, Miss Tahiti 2025.