User:Mauriziok/Mrs. Universe

Mrs. Universe is an annual international event for "the most honorable married woman", first organized in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2007. The event is open to married, divorced, and widowed women from nations on all continents around the world, who are between the ages of 18 and 55, have a family and career, and are involved in a "significant cause". It is based in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The organizer, Mrs. Universe Ltd., also organizes the Mrs. Europe, Grandma Universe, and Children of the Universe pageants.

The current and reigning queen and titleholder, Mrs. Universe 2021, is Ana Siradze from Georgia. The next pageant is set for December 3–11, 2022 in South Korea.

Titleholders
The following is the list of winners of this event since its inception in 2007.

Comparison with Miss Universe
The Mrs. Universe organization was sued in 2010 by the Miss Universe organization for an alleged breach of trademark. The Mrs. pageant countered that "Universe" is a generic word, and pointed out that the Mrs. pageant is exclusively for married women while the Miss pageant is for unmarried women. The Mrs. organization opined that the lawsuit was part of a conspiracy by human traffickers to stop the pageant, because Mrs. Universe held an awareness campaign about human trafficking. Then, in 2015, the Miss Universe organization threatened legal action against Mrs. Universe for breach of trademark. This came on the tails of comments made by the first Indigenous woman to ever win a Universe title, Ashley Callingbull-Burnham, when she criticized the Canadian government's lack of support of First Nations people.

The Mrs. Universe pageant has continued to run despite this controversy, arguing that it is a pageant for married, divorced, and widowed women while the Miss Universe pageant is restricted to women who have never been married. Beginning in 2023, however, the Miss Universe Organization will allow married or pregnant women to compete in the pageant. Accepting married contestants reinvigorates tension between the American-based Miss Universe pageant and the European-based Mrs. Universe pageant, which was previously the only avenue for married women to compete for the Universe title. However, distinction between the two pageants still exists, where Mrs. Universe allows contestants up to 45 years of age, while Miss Universe remains restricted to women under 28 even if they are married.