In 2001, after being elected Miss France, Elodie Gossuin was at the heart of persistent rumors. The Miss Universe committee was convinced that she was transsexual.
We are on December 9, 2000. A few days before her twentieth birthday, Elodie Gossuin is crowned Miss France in Monaco ahead of Stéphanie Faby, Miss Corse, and Marine Clouet, Miss Poitou. Aware that her life was going to change that evening, the young woman could not expect a rumor to taint her reign. In May 2001, she was invited like the other beauty queens to take part in the Miss Universe contest. At the time, Donald Trump, who organized the competition, had spread a rumor and questioned the birth sex of Elodie Gossuin. At the time, the World Committee even threatened to disqualify her from the competition. Geneviève de Fontenay had then crossed the Atlantic to calm things down and the young woman had been forced to reveal her birth certificate.
“From what I knew, because it could not succeed in terms of complaint, it is that at the same time in France, there was the election of Miss trans. And for them trans, c is Francetold the wife of Bertrand Lacherie in a live Instagram in 2929. And there was a newspaper sponsor of the election which was completely serious, but which took up a French article from a satirical site, Le Gorafi. They took it literally and said I was a man because I had two big hands.” Fifteen days before the election in Puerto Rico, Elodie Gossuin arrived on site to prepare. But at the time, the Miss France had been locked in her room while the committee settled this story. “I had absolutely no idea what was going on”she remembered on the airwaves of RTL.
Elodie Gossuin: “They tell me: ‘it’s good, we know the truth'”
“I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a publicity stunt, a buzz, something like thatcontinued Elodie Gossuin in the show We redid the TV this Saturday, September 24. In addition, I am told that it was the front page of a satirical site. I remember that the two news of the day were: ‘Elodie Gossuin is transsexual and Jean-Luc Delarue has two penises’.” In Puerto Rico, she was “summoned to the offices of the official delegation”. Members of the delegation then questioned her. “They tell me: ‘it’s good, we know the truth. You have very big hands’, she added. I told them: ‘it doesn’t mean that I have a big penis, I just have big hands’.” If she is laughing today, Elodie Gossuin experienced it very badly. “I was devastated”summarizes it still as hallucinated.
But that’s not all. Convinced that she was born a man, the international committee made her a particularly shocking proposal. “So they tell me: ‘there are two solutions, either you are disqualified, or if you want to prove the contrary, you undergo a gynecological examination in front of cameras’, still remembered Elodie Gossuin, still shocked by this request. Even when I was young, I said to myself: ‘my integrity, a minimum of respect for myself…’.” But at the time, the rumor took on monstrous proportions. “They locked me in the hotel room. No cell phone at the time, I couldn’t even call my motherregrets Elodie Gossuin, more than 20 years later. They had cut the phone line. It was a golden prison, I was sequestered, it was hell. To see Geneviève, I ran away from the hotel.”
Elodie Gossuin: when Donald Trump congratulated her…
Finally allowed to compete, Elodie Gossuin ranked in the top 10 of the Miss Universe election, won that year by Denise Quiñones, Miss Puerto Rico. After the big night, she ran into Donald Trump, who later became President of the United States. “There was a gala dinner and at that time, I met Mr. Trump who said to me: ‘It’s good, it created a very good buzz, we communicated well around the election'”, she remembered, still shocked, on Instagram. A few months later, Miss France 2001 took part in the Miss Europe contest. This time was the right one since Elodie Gossuin won the crown ahead of Adriana Gerczew (Miss Poland), Karla Milinovic (Miss Croatia), Hatice Sendil (Miss Turkey) and Verónica Martín (Miss Spain).