Miss France, a dental student, crowned Miss Universe

On Monday, Iris Mittenaere from the city of Lille in northern France was crowned in Maila, Philippines in the grand finaly.

The 23-year-old dental student emerged winner out of 86 contestants from across the world. While answering her final question from Steve Harvey, pageant host, the beauty queen said she believes her country will someday have the “biggest exchange of people”.

“In France we want to have the most globalisation that we can. We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can.

“Maybe someday that will change but now we have open borders. Having open borders allows us to travel more through the world and to find out more about what’s out there in the world,” she said.

Miss Haiti and Miss Colombia emerged as first and second runner-ups respectively.

The new Miss Universe was crowned by her predecessor, Miss Philippines.

Mittenaere announced that her pet project will be to campaign for dental and oral care around the world.

“This sash is not only a sash, this is something to help people, to understand people.”

Other top finalists were from Kenya, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Phillippines, Canada, Brazil, France, Haiti, Thailand and the US.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by the Miss Universe Organisation.