Miss USA crowns first married mother in pageant's 75 years

Justus Kelley, Miss Virginia, won the 75th annual Miss USA pageant Thursday night at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. She became the first married mother to hold the title, and at 31, the first winner in her 30s. Audrey Eckert, Miss USA 2025, crowned her.

Kelley is a foster mom of two and founder of a nonprofit. She also writes children's books. In her Miss USA bio, she said she dresses exclusively in secondhand or sponsored clothing for pageants, to show that "pageantry can be accessible."

Miss USA opened its competition to married women and mothers in 2023. Kelley has been married to her college sweetheart for nine years.

Fifty-one women competed in the preliminary rounds earlier this week in Miami. The top 20 moved to an onstage swimsuit round, and the top 10 also faced an evening gown round. The top five then answered one final question.

Kelley was asked: "For 75 years, Miss USA has reflected the changing face of American women. If you become the 75th Miss USA, what do you hope your year will say about women in America today?"

"What my year as Miss USA would mean and look like is no longer questioning if we have to choose between our ambitious careers, our families, and our wildest dreams," she answered. "I'm standing on this stage embracing every part of who I am, and I believe that I can be your next Miss USA."

Contestants were also judged this year on a new category, "commercial appeal," which evaluated how they might attract sponsorships. "When it comes to commercial appeal, Miss USA shouldn't only look incredible wearing that crown, they should make the rest of the world want to work with the woman wearing it," Ian Ziering, the Miss USA host and actor, said during the live show. His co-host, Kenya Moore, Miss USA 1993, added during the broadcast that the pageant was "putting emphasis" on the winner's "ability to connect with a camera, with major brands, with beauty campaigns, and more."

The category was scored from a portfolio of non-pageant images the contestants submitted to the judges, who sat through all rounds including the preliminaries. The panel included Miss USA 2016 Deshauna Barber-Echols, The Shade Room CEO Angelica Nwandu, Miss Universe 1992 Michelle McLean, Miss Puerto Rico 2019 Madison Anderson, choreographer Mia Michaels and talent manager Steven Grossman.

Two days before the final, Miss USA said on Instagram that the audience would help pick the top 10. "Your vote can have a real impact on who advances," the caption read. Fans had a 12-minute window to cast votes on a website. The votes were combined with the judges' scores, though how much weight they carried was unclear. Miss Montana led the online vote when the window closed, according to the website, but did not make the top 10.

Miss USA has had three different leaders since 2020, a stretch that included rigging accusations and lawsuits. Some queens relinquished their crowns.

The CW Drop and the Streaming Fallback

This year's final was originally set to air on The CW. The network dropped the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA finals from its schedule on August 20, as Business Insider first reported. "After careful consideration and conversations with the Miss USA Organization, The CW Network has decided to forego next week's broadcasts of the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants," a spokesperson for the network said in a statement.

The Miss USA organization said in an Instagram story posted the same day that it had identified a "contractual issue with our production arrangements that could not be resolved within the necessary timeframe." "Since then, our team has worked diligently to explore options that would allow us to continue with a live broadcast on The CW," it added. "Unfortunately, we were unable to reach mutually agreeable terms for this year's event."

Both finals were available to watch live on the Queen Beauty Network, a streaming service focused on the pageant industry, as in 2025.

Kelley will represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico in November.