Miss Black Britain 2009 was brandished a ‘shambles’ after host Nia Long walked out during the event, and ticket holders claimed they were ‘conned’. Chaos kicked off behind the scenes when co-host Nia left the building midway through the event – before Rikaya Tagoe,was declared the winner.
Nia’s international publicist, Jessica Huie, was PR for the event, but ditched her post a day before the show.
She told OvergroundOnline:
‘Nia was disappointed that the lack of organisation lead to her early departure. She and I arrived at the venue at 7pm as requested to perform a walk-through before the show opened at 8pm.
‘On arrival we were informed by the organisers that Ms Long’s co-host [UK model Ainslee, below] “was not confident” enough and they had been left to draft in an alternative co-host. This meant the script which Ms Long had rehearsed was now defunct.
‘The chaotic scene which met us on arrival due to the road closures around the venue earlier in the day, suggested a severe lack of organisation, and this was not a scenario either myself or Ms Long were comfortable she host in.
‘Having agreed to attend purely as a support for the contestants and the positive ethos of the Miss Black Britain concept, Ms Long agreed to stay in a judging capacity.
‘The show opened 90 minutes late, by which point Ms Long had been sitting in her dressing room for almost two hours. Due to a previously organised engagement at 11pm, we had no option but to leave the venue at the interval.
‘If the show had run to schedule Ms Long would have remained present throughout, and was disappointed that the lack of organisation lead to her early departure.’
Take a look at the contestants below:
Check out our Nia Long gallery below:
