Miss France makes beauty pageant history amid rule change

This year’s Miss France did something never done before after being crowned the country’s beauty pageant winner over the weekend.

A woman has broken records after she was crowned Miss France at the age of 34.

Angélique Angarni-Filopon was crowned Miss France 2025 over the weekend. It was a historic move for the competition.

Until August 2023, Miss Universe contestants couldn’t be older than 28. This was the first year France had followed that new rule.

Ms Angarni-Filopon previously won Miss Martinique.

“In 2011, a 20-year-old woman stood as first runner-up in Miss Martinique,” she said during the competition.

Newly elected Miss France 2025 Angelique Angarni-Filopon. Picture: ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP

“Today, at 34, that same woman is here, representing not just Martinique but also all the women who’ve been told it’s too late.”

Ms Angarni-Filopon succeeded Eve Gilles, who won the 2024 Miss France title. Runners up for the 2025 competition included Sabah Aïb, who was just 18 years old.

Ms Aïb, from Nord-Pas-de-Calais, was the first runner up. She was expected to win. However, throughout the competition, she was subjected to racism due to her Moroccan heritage.

“France is a multicultural country, and having a name from elsewhere doesn’t change the fact I am French,” she said online, the Pinnacle Gazette reported.

Stella Vangioni, Moïra André — both 27 — and Lilou Emeline-Artuso, 21, were also runners up.

The change of rule by the Miss Universe competition has had a global impact.

Earlier this year Emily Becca, 32, told news.com.au that she was entering Miss Universe Australia after a fraught and complicated pregnancy.

It left Emily with a “ripping” effect on her skin. She was also in chronic pain.

“I soon fell into a really bad depression because no one was able to help me. No one was able to tell me what was going on,” she said at the time.

She was 34. Picture: ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP

Emily Becca showed off her C-section scar in a bikini. Picture: Instagram/emilybecs

“A lot of women are taught to just dismiss these things because it’s just the cost of having a baby.”

She ended up paying $7000 to have corrective surgery for her scar. The entire experience left Emily feeling as though she was in a rut. She felt as though she was no longer in charge of her body due to its look and chronic pain and she wanted to reclaim her sense of self.

In 2022, the Miss Universe competition revealed that married women and mothers could compete. This, coupled with the age restriction being lifted, gave Emily her chance.

“I took this as my most radical way to sort of get myself out of that rut,” she said.

Originally published as Miss France makes beauty pageant history amid rule change