Sri Lankan model Caroline Jurie took home the title of Mrs. World 2020 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort over the weekend.
Jurie, 27, bested candidates from 50 other countries, with Mrs. Ireland and Mrs. U.S. Virgin Islands winning first- and second-runner up, respectively.
Jurie is the second Sri Lankan to dominate the pageant, more than three decades after Rosy Seanayake took the crown home.
Seanayake, who currently serves as mayor of Colombo, won the title in 1984 (as Mrs. World 1985) at the finals held in Queensland, Australia — the inaugural year of the pageant.
“It’s an honor and privilege to represent my country,” Jurie wrote on Facebook ahead of the pageant.
“I’m so honored to share my heritage and culture on the global stage,” she added.
Jurie received the crown from Vietnamese female-for-tech advocate Jennifer Le, who won the title in the previous year.
“Winning a crown is not about being royalty or being treated like a queen, it’s about having a heart of a queen — the heart to serve others and having a platform to spread goodness, instill hope in others and to encourage and inspire,” Le wrote in a farewell post.
Jurie arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning with a special function organized at the Bandaranaike International Airport to welcome her return, according to Hiru News.
Relatives and supporters greeted the new Mrs. World, who later set off to Colombo in a special convoy, Ada Derana reported.
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