T&T Miss Uni­verse rep­re­sen­ta­tive did not walk away with the 2023 crown on Sat­ur­day night but said she is leav­ing with mem­o­ries of a “jour­ney of a life­time!”

Miss Nicaragua Sheyn­nis Pala­cios was crowned Miss Uni­verse at the 72nd edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion.

Hours af­ter Faith Gillezeau proud­ly rep­re­sent­ed the coun­try at the pageant in El Sal­vador, she post­ed on so­cial me­dia that her life had changed and she was look­ing for­ward to re­turn­ing home to the peo­ple she had been proud to rep­re­sent.

“All I have want­ed out of be­ing Miss Trinidad and To­ba­go was to make my coun­try proud and I know that I’ve done my best to do that. I haven’t done it alone and I’d like to thank every­one that made it pos­si­ble for me to do my best tak­ing my cul­ture and my sweet, sweet Trinidad and To­ba­go to the Uni­verse!” Gillezeau said.

On the day of the fi­nals, Sat­ur­day, she in­di­cat­ed that “what­ev­er the out­come, at what­ev­er point I re­turn home to my coun­try, I’m com­ing back to the love of every­one I’ve rep­re­sent­ed here as Miss Uni­verse Trinidad and To­ba­go. This has been the jour­ney of a life­time and in all the mo­ments I’ve been test­ed and pushed, I’ve al­so been en­cour­aged and trans­formed. For this op­por­tu­ni­ty, I re­main for­ev­er grate­ful.”

Gillezeau made it to the Top 5 in the Na­tion­al Cos­tume cat­e­go­ry with a cos­tume on stilts de­pict­ing one of T&T’s na­tion­al birds, the Scar­let Ibis. She said was shocked at her stel­lar per­for­mance on stage, “I can’t stop cry­ing out of amaze­ment. A moko jumbie far away from home on the @mis­suni­verse stage. Can you be­lieve that?”

“Last­ly, to the peo­ple of my Trinidad and To­ba­go who have opened their hearts to me and poured out on­ly love and sup­port, thank you. I set out on this jour­ney of a life­time with on­ly the hope of mak­ing you proud,” she added.

Sheyn­nis Pala­cios be­came the first Miss Nicaragua to win the Miss Uni­verse pageant. The first run­ner-up was Miss Thai­land An­nto­nia Por­sild, 27 and the sec­ond run­ner-up was Miss Aus­tralia Moraya Wil­son, 22.

In to­tal 82 del­e­gates from coun­tries around the world vied for the ti­tle. Sat­ur­day’s com­pe­ti­tion was filled with his­to­ry as for the first time the pageant al­lowed mar­ried women and moth­ers to com­pete. It al­so saw two open­ly trans women, Ma­ri­na Ma­chete from Por­tu­gal and Rikkie Kolle from the Nether­lands among the del­e­gates.

T&T’s very own Miss Uni­verse 1977 Janelle “Pen­ny” Com­mis­siong was among the pan­el of judges.