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Pushpika Sandamali De Silva, also known as either Pushpika Sandamali or Pushpika De Silva (, born 2 October 1989), is a Sri Lankan model and the current Mrs. Sri Lanka for Mrs. World 2021. Career She won the Miss World Sri Lanka title in 2011 and then participated at the Miss World 2011 beauty pageant contest which was held at London. She also won the best national costume at the Miss Tourism Queen International 2011 which was held at China in November 2011. She competed at the Top Model of the World Pageant contest in 2013 which was held at Egypt. Pushpika also appeared as model in Colombo Fashion Week. She also served as a television presenter for Hiru TV for a brief stint hosting few programmes. Biography She was born and raised in Polonnaruwa. Pushpika's husband claimed in a Facebook post that he was not involved with Pushpika for the past 4 years and they are finalizing their divorce. The Daily Mirror article lists that Pushpika’s case has been fixed in court for June/July 2021 and the Mrs. World contest will be held in December 2021, therefore by the time of the competition Pushpika will not be a legally married woman, thus disqualifying her from the contest according to world board rules as listed in their recent declaration. Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 During the grand finale of the Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021, contestant number 20 Pushpika De Silva was crowned by the jury panel as the winner of the Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 beauty pageant contest. She was crowned by Caroline Jurie the reigning Mrs. World 2020 and Mrs. Sri Lanka 2020. However, moments after officially announcing the winner of the competition, Caroline Jurie rushed to the stage. With microphone in hand she declared that there is a rule about being married and not divorced, and that she was taking the first steps in saying that the crown goes to the first runner up. She then proceeded to unceremoniously take the crown from Pushpika De Silva and put it on the head of the first runner-up, with help from another contestant Chula Padmendra. Following the incident, Pushpika soon left the stage with tears causing outcry and confusion among the public. Pushpika was injured by Caroline Jurie during the grand finale when the latter forcibly removed her crown. Pushpika claimed via her Facebook account that she is recovering from head injuries after being hospitalised and she denied reports which claimed that she is a divorcee. She threatened legal action against those who insulted her during the grand finale of the competition. The organisers of the Mrs. Sri Lanka event apologised for the incident and ensured that the crown and cash prize would be returned back to Pushpika De Silva. On 6 April 2021, the organisers returned the crown and prize to Pushpika. Chula Padmendra mentioned in a recent interview that there were no auditors and translators in the Mrs. Sri Lanka 2021 pageant, and not all contestants were treated equally in the stage due to a favoritism scandal as seen by witnesses and other evidence that will be presented in an upcoming court case in regards to this incident.
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