What did Raul Rocha say about R’Bonney Gabriel’s following count? Miss Universe 2022 responds to pageant owner’s controversial take

Miss Universe 2022 R’Bonney Gabriel responded to Miss Universe Organization president Raúl Rocha after he compared her social media following to those of recent winners. The clip was uploaded on social media, which forced the 2022 Miss Universe to comment on the reel, where she expressed her disdain at being measured by follower count.

The organization's president compared the 2022 winner to Miss Universes like Victoria of Denmark and Sheynnis of Nicaragua. He said :

"Just for your knowledge, Fatima has gained 3 million followers in just one week, a remarkable achievement by any standard. During my term, other Miss Universes like Victoria from Denmark and Sheynnis from Nicaragua also experienced notable growth in their followings, proving their influence during their reigns."

He continued to make the comparison:

"Yet, our former American queen, R'Bonney, who won in 2022, has reached only around 800k followers in nearly five years. The numbers speak for themselves. Fatima's reach, engagement, and resonance with the public have been nothing short of extraordinary."

His comment was soon met with backlash, with many expressing dislike with a metric such as follower count.

Soon, R'Bonney replied to the clip by commenting:

"I'm so tired of being measured by follower count."

Her comment was liked by her supporters and others who rallied around her. Recently, she was on a talk show, where she addressed this. She said:

"The least followed Miss Universe. People say all the time with the numbers. Yeah, on Instagram, I don't have a million followers. And people love to remind me that, honestly, I don't really care because the numbers are just a number. I think...I always think to myself, what if this all went away one day? Who would we be? So, you know, it's definitely addicting to want those numbers and want those likes."

She continued saying she doesn't waste her energy on matters like this as she directs all of it to her growth:

"But at the end of the day. You just don't want to put too much energy into it. You know, little growth or some growth is all need. I don't have to have 1 million, 2 million followers."

She concluded by saying that it's the platform that matters to her more than the follower count:

"To me, it's the platform that I want to spread messages on of sustainability, the community, work, and just show people what work I'm doing as Miss Universe. So if that's one person tuning in or ten people tuning in, that's fine as long as I'm growing at the end of the day."

Miss Universe R'Bonney continues to shine

Gabriel's performance in Miss Universe 2025 has received a lot of appreciation. She dazzled audiences when hosting the national costume and swimsuit segments in Bangkok by switching between Filipino, Spanish, and Thai with ease. This moment quickly went viral on social media. She had shared the clip on Instagram where “When you put ‘multilingual’ in your resume,” was written.

The Filipino audience was jumping with excitement when she said:

“Kita tayo mamaya!”

which means "Let’s see each other later" and

“Masaya po ang lahat?”

which translates to "Is everyone happy?"

Gabriel has previously stated that in order to strengthen her ties to her father's culture, she has started learning Filipino.

In the last couple of hours, people have been following her Instagram account to increase the number of followers. She even put up a story thanking all her fans and supporters. At the time of writing, she currently has 980k followers, which will soon turn into millions.

Stay tuned to Soap Central for more information.

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