From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Lorraine Downes

New Zealand beauty pageant contestant

Summary

New Zealand beauty pageant contestant

Field	Value
name	Lorraine Downes
photo	Lorraine Downes in Oval Office (cropped).jpg
caption	Downes in the Oval Office,1984
title	Miss New Zealand 1983
Miss Universe 1983
nationalcompetition	Miss New Zealand 1983
(Winner)
Miss Universe 1983
(Winner)
birth_place	Auckland, New Zealand
birth_name	Lorraine Elizabeth Downes
birth_date
spouse	{{plainlist
* {{marriage	Murray Mexted<br>	1986	2001	end	div}}
* {{marriage	Martin Crowe<br>	2009	2016	end	d.}}
children	2
height
eye_color	Blue green
hair_color	Blonde

Miss Universe 1983 (Winner) Miss Universe 1983 (Winner)|

Lorraine Elizabeth Downes (born 12 June 1964) is a New Zealand dancer and beauty queen who won the Miss Universe title in 1983 and the New Zealand version of the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars in 2006.

Early life

Downes was born in Auckland to Lloyd and Glad Downes. She is one of four daughters, Her sisters are Sue, Jenny and Carolyn.

Miss Universe

Downes won the Miss New Zealand title and went on to represent her country at the 1983 Miss Universe pageant broadcast live from St. Louis, Missouri in July 1983. After the preliminary competition, Downes made the top twelve cut in sixth place, but placed second in the final evening gown competition, third in the interview competition, and fourth in swimsuit. She made the final five in third place behind Julie Hayek of the USA and Lolita Morena of Switzerland, and was eventually crowned Miss Universe.

She wore a midnight blue gown and long gloves during the competition. Downes' win was New Zealand's first in the pageant's history, although Diana Delyse Nottle had placed second runner-up to Shawn Weatherly in 1980 and Donella Thomsen was a semi-finalist in 1981. No other delegate from New Zealand made the cut until 1992.

Life after Miss Universe

In 1986, Lorraine Downes married Murray Mexted, a New Zealand rugby All Black, with whom she had two children, before divorcing in 2001. She also has a successful business in New Zealand. In 2009, Downes married former New Zealand international cricket captain Martin Crowe. She and Crowe remained together until his death from lymphoma in 2016.

After years of relative anonymity, Downes competed in and won the New Zealand version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006 with dance partner Aaron Gilmore.

References

Croot, James. (2023-07-10). "Forty years after winning Miss Universe, Lorraine Downes looks back in new documentary".
(2023-07-28). "Downes crowned winner of Dancing with the Stars [audio report]".
(2023-07-28). "Cancer survivor a model of inspiration".
(13 May 2013). "Lorraine Downes and her mum: 'We've never been so close'".
"Lorraine Downes crowned Miss Universe".
McKenzie-Minifie, Martha. (27 December 2006). "Catching up with: Lorraine Downes, dancing queen". [[New Zealand Herald]].
(2011). "Wedding bells for Crowe and Downes".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1964-births dancing-with-the-stars-(new-zealand-tv-series)-winners living-people miss-new-zealand-winners miss-universe-1983-contestants miss-universe-winners new-zealand-beauty-pageant-winners models-from-auckland

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Lorraine Downes — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report