Miss Universe Scandal 2025: Co-Owners Face Fraud and Criminal Charges in Separate Cases

The Miss Universe Organization is once again in the global spotlight — but this time, not for its glamorous stage or inspiring contestants. Instead, the world-renowned beauty pageant is facing one of its biggest crises yet, as two Miss Universe co-owners are now facing serious legal charges in separate countries.

These developments have sparked intense media coverage and raised concerns about the future credibility of the Miss Universe brand.

What Happened? A Quick Overview of the Miss Universe Scandal

On November 26, 2025, major international news outlets reported that the co-owners of the Miss Universe Organization were each facing major legal troubles, including fraud allegations and criminal charges linked to organized crime.

This comes at a time when the pageant was already dealing with controversies surrounding the Miss Universe 2025 results — creating a perfect storm of public scrutiny.

1. Thai Co-Owner Faces Arrest Warrant Over Bond Fraud Case

A major development came from Thailand, where a Bangkok criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip, a well-known Thai media personality and former majority owner of Miss Universe.

Why was the warrant issued?

• Jakrajutatip is accused of fraud related to the sale of corporate bonds worth approximately $930,000 USD.
• An investor claims he was misled about JKN Global Group’s financial strength and repayment ability.
• She failed to appear in court for a scheduled hearing, prompting the judge to issue the warrant and set a new date for December 26.

This case has immediately fueled discussions about transparency and mismanagement within the organizations previously under JKN’s control.

2. Separate Case: Another Miss Universe Owner Faces Criminal Charges

In a different legal battle, reports from the U.S. and Mexico indicate that Raúl Rocha Cantú, another partial owner of the Miss Universe Organization, is facing serious charges tied to organized crime, drug trafficking, weapons violations, and illegal fuel smuggling.

Although the charges are unrelated to Miss Universe, the association with a global brand has intensified worldwide attention — especially after the controversies that surrounded the Miss Universe 2025 pageant.

How Will These Cases Affect the Miss Universe Brand?

These simultaneous controversies pose significant risks to one of the world’s most recognizable pageants. Experts believe the impact could be substantial:

🔹 Reputation and Public Trust

The Miss Universe Organization is built on global credibility. Legal scandals involving co-owners can weaken trust among fans, partners, and national directors.

🔹 Sponsorship & Media Deals

Brands may hesitate to commit to sponsorships or broadcasting rights until the legal situation becomes clear.

🔹 Licensing and Franchise Rights

Countries hosting national pageants under the Miss Universe umbrella may demand more transparency and oversight.

🔹 Potential Ownership Restructuring

If the controversies continue, the organization may consider restructuring ownership to protect its long-term reputation.

Why This Scandal Matters

Miss Universe isn’t just a beauty competition — it is a cultural event that reaches millions of viewers worldwide. When key figures behind the organization face legal challenges, the ripple effect can influence:

• global pageant culture
• international media partnerships
• participating countries and national franchises
• fans’ perception of fairness and integrity

The current situation marks a critical turning point for Miss Universe as it tries to maintain its legacy amid growing controversy.

What Happens Next?

As the cases continue to unfold in Thailand, Mexico, and the U.S., the Miss Universe Organization has yet to release a full statement addressing both situations.

Industry insiders predict that the coming months will determine whether the brand can recover, rebuild trust, and move forward — or whether deeper structural changes will be required.

One thing is certain:
Miss Universe 2025 will be remembered not only for its winners, but for one of the biggest scandals in the pageant’s history.

Saudi Arabia is experiencing one of its biggest lifestyle shifts in decades. As the Kingdom rapidly transforms under Vision 2030, residents across Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and beyond are embracing healthier living, fitness culture, clean eating, and self-care practices at record levels. The year 2025 marks a turning point where wellness becomes a mainstream priority—not just a trend.

From booming gym memberships to plant-based dining, mental health awareness, and wellness-focused travel, here’s what you need to know about the lifestyle trends shaping Saudi Arabia this year.

1. The Fitness Boom: Gyms and Group Workouts Surge in Popularity

The fitness sector in Saudi Arabia continues to expand rapidly in 2025. Gyms, boutique fitness studios, and outdoor activity parks are reporting their highest membership growth ever.

Popular fitness trends include:

• Strength training and bodybuilding
• CrossFit, HIIT, and functional training
• Yoga, Pilates, and mobility classes
• Women-only fitness centers
• Outdoor running and cycling clubs

Wearable fitness devices, step counters, and health-tracking apps are now widely used, helping residents maintain consistent health habits and measurable goals.

2. Healthy Eating Becomes a Lifestyle, Not a Diet

Saudi Arabia is seeing a major rise in clean eating and nutrition-focused habits. Supermarkets, cafés, and restaurants are expanding their healthy offerings to meet demand.

Key trends dominating 2025:

• Organic fruits and vegetables
• High-protein and low-sugar meals
• Plant-based and vegan options
• Gluten-free and dairy-free menus
• Hydration and electrolyte-focused beverages

Residents are prioritizing nutrient-dense foods over fast food, and meal-prep services are becoming popular among busy professionals and families.

3. Mental Wellness and Self-Care Move to the Center Stage

Mental health is gaining unprecedented attention in Saudi Arabia. In 2025, self-care routines are becoming part of everyday life for people of all ages.

New trends include:

• Meditation and mindfulness programs
• Spa and wellness retreats
• Digital therapy and telehealth consultations
• Stress-management workshops
• Journaling, gratitude exercises, and breathwork

Workplaces also play a role, offering wellness days, counseling support, and corporate fitness programs to enhance employee well-being.

4. Women Leading the Wellness Movement

Saudi women are at the forefront of the Kingdom’s lifestyle transformation. Female-led fitness communities, wellness influencers, and nutrition coaches are inspiring millions through social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Popular women’s trends include:

• Women-only gyms and boutique fitness studios
• Prenatal yoga and postpartum fitness programs
• Women’s mental-health support groups
• Healthy cooking and nutrition pages

Their influence is accelerating national awareness of holistic well-being.

5. Wellness Tourism and Outdoor Lifestyle Growth

Saudi Arabia’s natural beauty is now part of its wellness identity. In 2025, more residents and tourists are turning to wellness-focused travel, including:

• Desert yoga retreats
• Hiking and mountain trekking in Taif, AlUla, and Abha
• Eco-friendly resorts
• Outdoor meditation camps
• Healthy culinary travel experiences

Thanks to expanded flights and tourism infrastructure, the Kingdom is positioning itself as one of the Middle East’s top wellness destinations.

6. Tech-Driven Wellness: Apps and Digital Health on the Rise

Digital health solutions are reshaping lifestyle habits. Popular tools in 2025 include:

• Calorie and nutrition apps
• Step trackers and sleep monitors
• AI-powered fitness coaching
• Telemedicine for mental and physical health
• Smart home wellness devices

Saudi residents are using technology to stay consistent, monitor progress, and maintain accountability.

A Healthier, Stronger, and More Balanced Kingdom

The lifestyle transformation taking place in Saudi Arabia in 2025 is more than a trend—it’s a nationwide shift toward long-term health, wellness, and balanced living. With growing access to fitness centers, healthier dining options, mental health support, and wellness-focused travel, the Kingdom is quickly becoming one of the healthiest and most active societies in the region.

As Vision 2030 continues to reshape the country, the future of wellness in Saudi Arabia looks brighter than ever.

he first thing Annie and her partner do when they wake up in the morning is ask each other how well they slept. “And I literally say, ‘I’m not sure yet, let me check,’” – and Annie, a chief people and safety officer, reaches for her smartwatch.

Annie started monitoring because she worried she wasn’t getting enough good-quality sleep. Now she’s a self-confessed sleep data “nerd”, mining her sleep data for insights into her general health and wellbeing, using it to inform lifestyle decisions and even occasionally to guide how much she aims to accomplish in a day.

Sleep monitoring is a boom industry, mirroring what devices and apps such as Fitbits and Strava have done for physical activity. Market reports vary on the value of this industry, but it is clearly lucrative and growing rapidly. A quick search reveals a wide range of devices – rings, headbands, watches and other wrist-worn devices, under-mattress devices and bedside devices – all suggesting their use will unlock such quality sleep as to make Rip Van Winkle jealous.

An estimated 40% of Australians are not getting enough good quality sleep, and one in 10 experience chronic insomnia. “We do know there are a lot of people who do worry about their sleep and whether they’re getting enough sleep, particularly if they’re not meeting some of the recommended sleep duration guidelines,” says Dr Hannah Scott, a senior research fellow in sleep psychology at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide, and co-inventor of a wearable device that tracks and treats chronic insomnia

Scott sees the rise in the use of sleep trackers as generally good news. “They’ve certainly improved awareness around the importance of sleep and around healthy sleep patterns so overall, I’d say they’ve probably had a positive effect.” But there’s a downside. “If you try harder to exercise, you’ll become fitter, but we have the opposite problem with sleep actually; that the harder you try, the harder it is to actually obtain sleep,” Scott says. “We can be creating some problems over people becoming too obsessive about trying to optimise it.” There’s even a term for it: orthosomnia, which describes an unhealthy preoccupation with sleep-tracking data.

The most accurate picture of sleep health is derived from what’s called polysomnography, which requires a person to spend the night in a sleep laboratory with their head and body covered with electrodes that monitor and measure brain wave activity, eye movement, breathing, heart rate, muscle movement and blood oxygen levels. That provides a wealth of information such as time spent in different stages of sleep, how many times someone wakes up and how long it takes them to fall asleep, says Prof Christopher Gordon, professor of sleep health at Macquarie University in Sydney.

“Wearables – and that’s lumping a lot of different devices in one word – but generally they’re not that accurate at being able to tell how long you took to fall asleep and how long you’re awake and asleep overnight, and that’s because it’s not measuring brainwave activity,” he says. That brainwave activity is used to determine time spent in different stages of sleep: stage one, two and three of non-REM sleep and REM sleep

What wearables can detect and measure – in varying combinations and with varying degrees of accuracy – is heart rate, temperature, movement and blood oxygen levels, which are then fed into algorithms that determine whether the picture painted by that data is of someone sleeping soundly or restlessly awake. “It could be a device that’s specifically measuring movement only, and it’s looking at algorithms that say if your arms are moving a lot you’re awake, if it’s not moving a lot it’s sleep,” Gordon says. But “that has very little agreement with what happens in your brain in terms of the qualitative aspect of sleep”.

The other challenge is that there isn’t a clear understanding of exactly what good sleep looks like, says Associate Prof Jen Walsh, director of the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “It’s an area that’s debated within our profession,” she says. There’s sleep quantity – simply the amount of time spent asleep – and sleep quality, which is more complex and takes into account time spent in different stages of sleep, whether sleep is broken, how often and for how long. “Sleep quantity is quite easy to define and calculate, whereas sleep quality is somewhat harder,” she says. Current guidelines suggest adults should aim for between seven and nine hours of sleep a night but there isn’t such clear advice on what type of sleep – how much of each stage – is optimum.

Sleep quality is also highly subjective and sometimes doesn’t match what even the most accurate lab-based monitoring says, according to Dr Maya Schenker, a postdoctoral researcher on trauma and sleep at the University of Melbourne. “If we feel like we slept very badly, it doesn’t matter what the watch is telling me,” she says. Even in people with chronic insomnia, sleep often looks a lot better on the polysomnography than what they subjectively report.

Rachel says her sleep-monitoring ring has helped her to understand some of the factors that help her get a better night’s sleep. “If I do pilates in the evening, I seem to mostly sleep better,” the Canberra-based public servant says. And Annie has noticed that if she has a glass of wine at any time in the evening, her heart rate during sleep is about 10% higher.

This is where most experts see the usefulness of sleep trackers in a consumer setting: helping people understand how their lifestyle habits and behaviour affect their sleep, and making changes to improve it.

“A lot of people are interested in changing their sleep habits, but it’s hard to find a place to start,” says Dr Vanessa Hill, a sleep scientist at the Appleton Institute at CQ University in Adelaide, who also consults for Samsung Health. Data alone isn’t generally enough to change behaviour, but “if your watch can send you a notification where it’s like, ‘hey, yesterday, you went on a walk at this time and it improved your sleep’, or ‘yesterday you stopped drinking caffeine around this time’ or whatever, and that helps you fall asleep faster”, that can motivate people to change, she says, “I think that’s the best potential that these kinds of trackers can have.”

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Hill uses a smartwatch and a ring to monitor her sleep, and says she does check her sleep scores – particularly her heart rate during sleep, which she says may predict oncoming illness – as soon as she wakes up. “I look at what they’ve been overnight, because if I am getting sick or getting a cold or something like that, my heart rate variability will actually tell me before I feel any symptoms myself,” she says. “If, for whatever reason, I have really bad heart rate variability one night, I’m just like, I need to take it easy today, something’s up with my body.”

Many experts stress that consumer sleep trackers are not diagnostic tools and have some important limits. “If you train an algorithm on a set population that is healthy, you’re not going to necessarily pick up the same signal out of a population with, say, peripheral vascular disease with reduced blood flow into the fingers,” says Dr Donald Lee, a respiratory at sleep physician at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. Sleep habits also change over the lifespan, which may not be reflected by the algorithms used.

However sleep trackers do provide an opportunity to encourage healthier sleep habits, Lee says. “If we can engage people to … go to bed with a purpose, to turn out the light and go to sleep and improve their sleep habits by engaging in the conversation, it’s a good thing for the health trackers to be doing.”