Miss Delaware Teen USA, Melissa King, resigned her position Tuesday (Feb. 26), according to the pageant officials, after facing questions concerning whether or not she starred in an amateur sex video.
King, 18, told the News Journal, as reported by Delaware Online, that the woman in the video was "absolutely not" her.
The questions were prompted by the appearance of a video of a young woman who resembles King having sex with an unidentified male. Gawker.com reported Tuesday that they received an anonymous tip stating that the girl in the video, which was originally found on the site GirlsDoPorn.com (NSFW), was the beauty queen.
But King, who has retained a lawyer, maintains that the young woman in the video is not her, even though the video is titled "Cute Miss Teen..." and said young woman tells the off-camera interviewer that she does pageants and needs the money. She never referred to a location or state where she participated in the pageants, however.
The young woman in the video says she turned 18 "three months" before in "March." That places the making of the sex video in June. King won the Miss Teen Delaware International 2012 pageant in July.
She was crowned Miss Delaware Teen USA in November.
Gawker noted that King discussed being a foster child in a documentary about foster care in Delaware. She admitted to bouts of depression and anxiety and that financial problems were a hardship growing up.
Although a sad turn of events, especially if the young woman in the video actually is another person, but Melissa King could use the publicity from the scandal to launch a lucrative career. After all, it is how Kim Kardashian got her start.
But porn scandals are nothing new for beauty queens, either. Vanessa Williams, the first ever black Miss America (1983), saw her crown taken from her after photos surfaced of her in Penthouse magazine. She still went on to a rewarding singing and acting career.
Still, all scandals don't end well. Carrie Prejean, Miss California USA 2009, ended up suing the Miss California USA pageant organization after they dethroned her (and after her ignominious aftermath scandal surrounding her runner-up performance at the 2009 Miss America pageant). But she dropped the lawsuit (but a settlement was reportedly reached) when a sex video of herself performing an autoerotic act surfaced. Up until then, Prejean had become a family values and a darling of conservative media. Afterward, there was little mention of former beauty queen.
Melissa King's successor is slated to be 17-year-old Hailey Lawler, who was runner-up in November.
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