The first openly gay Miss England pageant winner says she is “in shock” following her win last week, five years after coming out and facing homophobic bullying at school.
Grace Richardson, 20, took home the title at the Miss England 2025 competition on Friday, November 21, making her the first openly gay woman to win the competition. She will represent England at the 2026 Miss World competition next year.
Richardson, a musical theater student at the Leicester College of Performing Arts and a part-time model, came out five years ago on TikTok, she told the Leicester Times. She faced frequent bullying from her classmates, she said, especially from boys in her class, who targeted her for her s3xuality and for being “too skinny.”
“It is important for young people in the LGBTQ community to see people representing them in all types of walks of life,” she added.
