Cindy Fabre, of Guadeloupe origin, replaces Sylvie Tellier at the head of the Miss France contest

The rumor had been circulating for several months. It is finally confirmed: Sylvie Tellier leaves her post as patroness of beauty queens.

In a press release published this Wednesday, August 31, the Miss France committee announces that she will be replaced by Cindy Fabre. Native of Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire (Nièvre), she is from Guadeloupe by her mother, and had been elected Miss France 2005.

She was chosen by Alexia Laroche-Joubert, the president of the company since the fall of 2021, who will remain “alone in charge of the management of the Miss France company“, details the press release.

The latter also announced the news on her Twitter account, where she says she has a “tender thought” for Sylvie Tellier and to be delighted to welcome Cindy Fabre.

She explained the choice of the Guadeloupean in an interview with TF1: “Cindy is a Miss France that I have known for a long time, I was there when she was elected in 2004 in Tours and when she was third place at Miss Europe. (…) She has all the professional and human qualities necessary to succeed in her new functions and best support young women in their role as embodying Miss France values.”

Cindy Fabre, also a project manager at an event agency, has yet to comment.

Sylvie Tellier, for her part, gave an exclusive interview to TV Mag. “It’s a major life change for me after seventeen years of involvement in the competition. But it’s not my company, and I wanted to give a new direction to my career“, she said.

She claims to havedesire to undertake“but will also retain”an advisory role“until December, and will present the ceremony on TF1 alongside Jean-Pierre Foucault.

Implicitly questioned on the assumption of duties of the president of the company and her desire for change, Sylvie Tellier assures “respect the decisions of the leaders“: “I am not leaving because of the arrival of Alexia Laroche-Joubert, who is a great television professional, but because I feel that I have achieved my objectives..”

The president has indeed considerably modified the rules of Miss France, drawing inspiration in particular from Miss Universe. If the candidates must be at least 18 years old, there is no longer any age limit: they can present themselves being 30 or 40 years old. They are also no longer required to be single, they can be married and mothers. Transgender people may also be accepted, as long as their marital status indicates that they are female.

The contest and the Miss France brand have been held since 2002 by the production company Endemol, a subsidiary of the Banijay group. But a legal dispute had a time opposed Sylvie Tellier and Endemol to Geneviève de Fontenay, historical leader of the “Miss”, who had then created a competing brand.