(Reuters) - A woman stripped of her crown as Miss Delaware because of her age said on Friday she had done nothing wrong by entering the pageant.
Amanda Longacre said she learned on Tuesday that she was disqualified because the Miss Delaware pageant determined she violated the age requirement. On NBC's "Today" show on Friday, a tearful Longacre said she was consulting a lawyer.
Pageant rules say Miss Delaware contestants must be no older than 24 and cannot turn 25 before the end of the year. Longacre's 25th birthday is Oct. 22.
She said on Friday she had provided her birth certificate, driver’s license and other documents with her pageant application.
"I did absolutely nothing wrong and I want to make that clear," Longacre said in an interview with the News Journal of Wilmington.
"Now I have lost everything, my scholarship money for school, my prizes and my crown, all because of a technicality that was not caught by the executive board."
A resident of Bear, Delaware, Longacre won the title of Miss Delaware on June 14. The winners of state pageants compete in September to become Miss America.
Longacre was replaced this week by the first runner-up in the pageant, Brittany Lewis, 23, of Wilmington, who was crowned at a special ceremony on Thursday.
"It's like they're trying to erase me in a way like it never happened," Longacre said on "Today." "And it's not fair because I won outright and I deserve to represent my state and I want the chance still to go to Miss America."
An attorney for the Miss Delaware pageant, Elizabeth Soucek, said the pageant would have little comment because litigation could be pending.
"All I can say is that there is an age requirement to be eligible to compete in Miss America," Soucek said.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Bill Trott)