Years ago, we used to have a steady stream of beauty pageant scandals and crises. It’s been ages since something major happened in pageant world, but this new scandal sounds like a doozy. Apparently, the newly-crowned Miss North Carolina has been dethroned and de-crowned, just one month after she won the title. The Miss USA organization says that some new information came to light about Brittany Boltinghouse and they’re no longer comfortable with Brittany wearing the Miss NC crown. It sounds really bad too.

Just over a month after being crowned Miss North Carolina USA 2026, Brittany Boltinhouse’s reign has come to an abrupt end. The Miss USA Organization announced on Aug. 5 that Boltinhouse is no longer Miss North Carolina USA 2026, saying the decision was made jointly with the titleholder, her state directors and the organization following what it described as conduct that violated its standards.

While Thom Brodeur, chairman and CEO of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, did not specify the conduct that led to the decision, he said the organization “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity.”

“That is not a policy written for a press release,” he wrote in the statement. “It is the floor of what it means to represent this brand.”

PEOPLE has reached out to reps for Boltinhouse and Miss USA for comment.

Brodeur also emphasized that holding the title comes with expectations beyond winning a pageant. “A title here isn’t a trinket,” he said. “It is a position of trust, extended by an organization and accepted by a woman who agrees to carry a standard in public. When that standard is broken, the title cannot continue as though nothing happened.”

The organization’s decision was not based on a single incident, according to Brodeur.

“What was brought to us was not a single moment,” he said. “It reflected conduct over an extended period of time. That is why this outcome was reached, and I stand behind it without qualification.”

Brodeur said state titleholders are “recruited, vetted and approved for competition at the state level” and that the organization acted “as soon as this reached us.”

While standing by the decision, Brodeur also urged people to remember that Boltinhouse is “still a human being.”

“There is a young woman at the center of this,” he said. “She has been named, examined, and judged in public in a way that most of us would not survive, and she is still a human being with a family, a future, and a life ahead of her that is longer than this part of her journey.”

[From People]

This guy says the organization “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity.” Ooooh. Wow. What’s crazy is that this dethroning isn’t some face-saving measure after a scandal already broke – perhaps there was chatter on some forum or what have you, but it looks like whatever her scandal was, it was pretty hidden or private. Did someone provide receipts to the Miss USA org? That’s probably exactly what happened – someone sent screenshots or a text thread of Boltinhouse saying something horrible. Okay… after I wrote all of this ^^ the story started coming out – apparently, Brittany used the n-word in old tweets and messages. YIKES.

Photos courtesy of Brittany Boltinhouse’s Instagram.