A former Miss California USA winner said Donald Trump called her unattractive and that he didn’t want her to give interviews because she sounded stupid — all during a conference call in which he was unaware that she could hear him.
Tami Farrell is one of several women who have recently opened up about their experiences being mistreated by the Republican presidential nominee. Trump owned the pageant until 2015.
Five teen beauty queens told BuzzFeed News that Trump had walked in on them in changing rooms while they were naked, and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado has spoken out repeatedly about Trump calling her fat and “the help.”
Women unaffiliated with the pageants have also come forward with stories of being sexually assaulted by Trump.
Farrell, who replaced Carrie Prejean as Miss California USA in 2009, posted a long Facebook status on Friday describing her experience. She was at her pageant director’s house while he was a conference call with with Trump and the Miss Universe World Organization.
"Ok, before we get started, I don't know who this new girl is, but I don't want her doing interviews,” Farrell recalled Trump saying. “She's unattractive and she sounds stupid.
“Ummmm...ummm...ummm. That's what she sounds like doing interviews. Had she been given the same question Carrie was given no one would care because she's ugly,” she wrote. She was 24 at the time.
“A lump grew in my throat and tears poured down my face. Donald Trump thought I was stupid, unworthy to be heard, and ugly,” Farrell said.
On Facebook, she listed her accomplishments leading up to her title: She had previously won Miss Teen USA and raised $21 million for her charity organization, and had brought the Miss Universe Organization a small local charity and helped it become a national one.
“He forgot who I was, and in that moment, his words made me forget too. I stood up and said I don't want your title, and ran to my car crying,” Farrell wrote.
Her pageant director and the Miss Universe Organization director both begged her not to quit, and she ultimately decided to stay. In the days and months that followed, Farrell said that Trump had made various attempts to wish her good luck before media appearances, but she never took his calls.
“Then one day I received a package from Mr. Trump,” Farrell wrote. “It was a photocopy of a magazine article about me. My twenty five year old swimsuit body laying glamorously across the beach. There was no letter just a note written across the photo. ‘Tami, You look great! Congrats!’ - Signed Donald Trump.”
She said that recent events — including the recently surfaced video of Trump saying that he has sexually assaulted women, as well as his past discriminatory comments about Mexicans and Muslims — have shown the world Trump’s true colors.
“If this is who he is in front of people, how much worse is he when no one else is around?” she wrote.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to Farrell.