The first Filipina Miss Universe joins the selection committee of the redemption pageant, whose second edition crowns its winner in Bangkok on December 12
Gloria Diaz is heading back to the pageant stage, this time as a judge. MGI All Stars announced on Sunday evening, November 1, 2026, that the Miss Universe 1969 titleholder will sit on the selection committee for the competition’s second edition.
“An icon across generations. From beauty queen to award-winning actress. In 1969, the first Filipina Miss Universe, Gloria Diaz. A timeless legacy lives on,” the pageant said in a video posted on its official Facebook page.
Fans were quick to cheer the news. “Happy to see her at MGI,” one netizen commented.
The actress and TV personality is famous for her sharp, witty questions, which pageant fans have long joked about as the “Gloria Diaz curse” because so few of the candidates she quizzed went on to win. She joins returning judges Psi Somut Scott of Thailand, Osmel Sousa of Venezuela and Omar Harfouch of Lebanon, as well as pageant coach Lu Sierra of the United States and Ecuador’s Shyare Andrade, the 2026 Miss Grand International first runner-up.
MGI All Stars, run by the organization behind Miss Grand International, is open to women who have “stood on an international stage but have yet to win a crown.” Colombia’s Vanessa Pulgarin won the first edition in May. Three Filipinas are confirmed for Season 2: Alexie Mae Brooks, Anne Patricia Lorenzo Diaz and Michelle Marquez Dee. The coronation is set for December 12 at the MGI Hall in Bangkok, Thailand.
Gloria was crowned Miss Universe on July 19, 1969, in Miami Beach, Florida. In a 2025 interview with Boy Abunda, she admitted she never expected to win.
“Definitely not,” she said. “But I didn’t think I was gonna lose. I mean parang, you don’t naman go into a contest and say, ay naku matatalo ako.”
She said being young helped her stay relaxed. “When you’re young… it’s like parang go with the flow, that’s why you’re not as tense,” Gloria shared, adding that many of today’s candidates carry heavier burdens because “they are the breadwinners, they have to do this.”
“That was the first time I went to the States. I was 18, and be on my own parang ganun, although I had a chaperone,” she recalled.