Marjorie Wallace was crowned Miss World on 23 November 1973 at the Royal Albert Hall, the first American ever to win it. She was 19 years old.
104 days later, the organisers took the title back. They said she “had failed to fulfil the basic requirements of the job” — and to this day they have never said anything more specific than that.
They didn’t give the crown to anyone else, either.
Updated September 2026
Why was Marjorie Wallace stripped of the Miss World title?
Because she had a private life. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
The official sentence was that she had failed to fulfil the basic requirements of the job. What sat behind it, according to TIME’s reporting at the time, was a run of press coverage over a few short months.
She had pledged to stay single for a year. Then Tom Jones was photographed kissing her. The racing driver Peter Revson was seen escorting her around. And in February 1974, after a row, the footballer George Best allegedly broke into her London flat and took her passport, chequebook, correspondence, drinks cabinet and fur coat.
The organisers decided all of this gave the wrong impression of single womanhood. The decision came in early March 1974, 104 days into her reign.
What did “the basic requirements of the job” mean?
Read it slowly and it gives itself away.
The basic requirement of being Miss World in 1973 was to be a single woman who didn’t behave like one.
It cost her about $120,000 in promotional contracts.
Who replaced Marjorie Wallace as Miss World?
Nobody did. The title was left vacant for the remainder of the year. Patsy Yuen of Jamaica, the second runner-up, carried out some of the duties without ever holding the title.
Which is the most revealing detail in the whole story. The organisation would rather have had no Miss World 1973 at all than name a replacement.
Has any other Miss World lost the title?
She’s the only one the organisers ever took it from.
Two others gave it up. Helen Morgan resigned four days into her 1974 reign, under pressure over being an unmarried mother. Gabriella Brum resigned a day into hers in 1980, over nude photographs.
Stripped and resigned aren’t the same thing — and Wallace is alone in the first category.
Was Marjorie Wallace really with Tom Jones?
That’s what the photographs showed, and it’s what the organisers acted on.
It’s also only one of three names that appeared in the coverage. The Best allegation and the Revson engagement mattered every bit as much.
Worth knowing, too: she was crowned Miss World USA in Binghamton, New York in September 1973 by the outgoing titleholder — Lynda Carter, a year before she became Wonder Woman.
What happened to Peter Revson?
Her fiancé — the Formula One driver and Revlon heir who’d won the British and Canadian Grands Prix in 1973 — was killed on 22 March 1974 at Kyalami, testing before the South African Grand Prix. A front suspension failure put him into the barrier, and the car caught fire.
That was fifteen days after she lost the crown.
He is said to have been wearing a gold locket she’d given him, engraved “If not for you …”
What happened to Marjorie Wallace afterwards?
In June 1974 she was hospitalised after an overdose. She has always rejected the way it was reported: “I was depressed and [OD’d] on a few too many sleeping pills. I never attempted suicide.”
She went on to work in television, including in Indianapolis, with credits on Baretta, Get Christie Love! and Match Game. In 1976 she moved in with the tennis player Jimmy Connors after his split from Chris Evert. She married three times — the film producer Michael Klein, with whom she had a son, Adam; the Florida developer Donald Soffer; and John Mills, in 2021.
She was 19 when a committee decided her private life disqualified her. She spent the rest of it out of their reach.
What was the Miss World 1973 contest?
It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 23 November 1973, with 54 delegates competing. The prize was £7,200.
Wallace was the first American ever to win it — which is part of why the story travelled, and part of why the organisers’ reversal 104 days later was so widely reported.
Who was Marjorie Wallace before Miss World?
She was from Indianapolis, and she came to London by way of Binghamton, New York, where she had been crowned Miss World USA that September by the outgoing titleholder, Lynda Carter.
Carter would become Wonder Woman the following year. Wallace would lose her crown within four months. The two of them stood on the same stage.
What did Marjorie Wallace do afterwards?
She worked in television, including in Indianapolis, with credits on Baretta, Get Christie Love! and Match Game. In 1976 she moved in with the tennis player Jimmy Connors after his split from Chris Evert.
She married three times: the film producer Michael Klein, with whom she had a son, Adam; the Florida developer Donald Soffer; and John Mills, in 2021.
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