Costa Rica model and Miss Costa Rica 2014, Karina Ramos, is suing model and beauty pageant contestant Nicole Carboni and Multimedios Costa Rica, for ¢135 million colones (almost half a million dollars) for insults and defamation.
The lawsuit was filed in the Primer Circuito Judicial de San José.
In the lawsuit, Karina says that Nicole, in an interview on the Multimedios cable television, said that Karina obtained her Miss Costa Rica title for having sex with the owner of the company that organizes the event, who is also the owner of the leading television station in the country.
The interview was broadcast on April 2, 2019, during a live presentation of “Divas pero divinas“, hosted by Glenda Peraza, Viviana Calderón, Cristiana Nassar and Maureen Salguero and subsequently posted on the social networks.
The 25-year-old model claims US$250,000 dollars from Nicole and US$223,000 from Multimedios de Costa Rica, for loss income of her model agency, Imagination Agency, of which she owns, and damages.
According to Karina, the statements made by Nicole led to the loss of prestige of her agency, she claims, causing moral damage resulting from “this entire media situation and lacking any kind of foundation”.
The lawsuit says that during that program, Nicole said: “Karina is a double-edged sword, two-faced… her title was obtained by having sex …” and cited the name of the channel 7 television station business owner, that organizes the contest.
In another point, the lawsuit claims that Karina assures that these statements were not only made within the program but also, “the Multimedios company, uploaded the video to social networks.”
“It is precisely there where they have come to discredit my reputation not only as a former beauty queen, but also in the field of marketing and advertising of the image and beauty of Costa Rican women.”
Against Multimedios, Karina argues argues that “it is clearly noted that one of the executives of the company and who is the channel’s program manager, Glenda Peraza, encouraged Nicole to be slanderous and insulting and, of course, false and lacking of any probative element against her and the Miss Costa Rica organization itself, which is promoted within the Teletica channel 7 television station.”
Nicole hits back
Nicole, a former Miss Costa Rica 2014 contestant, broke her silence and exploded in the social networks against the “Divas pero divinas” program, using her Facebook account to let off steam.
Nicole says that program invited her to speak openly about “envidia” (envy in the model business) and without censorship.
The model explained through her “feis” (Facebook) that before entering the set, the channel told her that she had every right to speak and say things as she wanted as it was a program without censorship, and the reason she agreed to appear on the program.
“I am not from wanting to please everyone, I am someone who likes to say things as they are, direct and true. Unfortunately, they played me, since the same presenters asked me the question about Karina,” she wrote.
“I am a direct, honest and sincere person and I was going to answer as it is, without making covering up things”, posted Nicole.
“In the end, the program did have censorship and is disrespectful to deceive a guest and especially being broadcast live, but good it was to be expected because some of the presenters work for the channel 7 Picado family,” she wrote.
Program punches back
Eric Muñoz producer of “Divas but Divinas” spoke with La Teja and explained that he read the comments published by Nicole and denied any censorship.
“There was never censorship, she was invited to talk about a specific issue. She was never told what she could say or what she could not. There was no censorship and she said what she said and everyone listened. I do not know why she assumes that she was duped,” he said.
The producer took a jab at Nicole, saying she should have never used the language she did, there are better ways of saying things, but being a live broadcast unexpected situations occur.
“In those situations, the way in which words are used is very important, it is not necessary to say things like that (as Nicole said), because there are others ways to say it,” he said.
