Five years after her heartbreaking moment became fodder for headlines around the world, Ariadna Gutiérrez is reflecting on everything she went through in pursuit of her Miss Universe dream.
As viewers remember, the former Miss Colombia endured a stunning ordeal on Dec. 20, 2015, when host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced her name as the Miss Universe winner before revealing he had made an error in reading the teleprompter and that Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach was the actual victor.
“I’m in awe that something so crazy and beyond reality could ever happen to me,” Ariadna tells E! News exclusively in an interview to mark the fifth anniversary. “It’s crazy that it actually happened. It sounds like it’s from a movie or something.”
She explains that she no longer thinks about that moment every day but that it has been a “gradual process” to put all of the pain behind her, especially given that winning the crown was everything she had hoped for while growing up in Colombia.
“In the beginning, I was devastated,” she admits. “It was my dream since I was a little girl. Imagine having your biggest dream come true, and then somebody just takes it away from you.”
