1. Early life and education

2. Career
    Pageantry  Miss France 2016  Miss Universe 2016  Post-pageantry 

3. References

4. External links

Iris Mittenaere ({{IPA-fr|i.ʁis mit.naʁ}}; born 25 January 1993) is a French model, television host, dancer, vedette (cabaret) and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe 2016. She is the second Miss Universe from France after Christiane Martel, who was elected Miss Universe 1953. Mittenaere had previously been crowned Miss France 2016 and Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2015.

Early life and education

Mittenaere was born on 25 January 1993 in Lille, to Yves Mittenaere, a Middle School History and Geography Teacher, and Laurence Druart, a primary schoolteacher and Museum Guide. She has a brother, Baptiste and a sister, Cassandre, and a younger half-sister, Manon. Her parents separated when she was three years old.^[1]

Mittenaere attended school in Steenvoorde, where she lived with her mother.^[1] In 2011, she graduated with honors from lycée with a focus on science. After graduating, she moved to Lille, where she attended Lille 2 University of Health and Law, studying dentistry.

Prior to becoming Miss France, Mittenaere was in her fifth year of a dental surgery fellowship and planned on becoming a dental surgeon after graduating.^[2]

Career

Pageantry

Miss France 2016

After winning the Miss Flandre title in Bailleul,^[2] Mittenaere entered the Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2015 pageant in Orchies, which she won.^[3] Mittenaere represented Nord-Pas-de-Calais at the Miss France 2016 pageant. On 19 December 2015, she was crowned Miss France by Miss France 2015 Camille Cerf in Lille.^[4] It was a back-to back for the region.

As Miss France, Iris Mittenaere promoted oral hygiene and launched an awareness campaign on oral health.^[5] She participated in oral hygiene awareness programs at French schools, declaring that "it is necessary to act at an early stage and to develop proper teeth brushing among school children".^[6][7]

In November 2016, Iris Mittenaere presented the Francophone Group of the Year's Award at the NRJ Music Award in Cannes.^[8]

During her reign as Miss France 2016, Iris Mittenaere has traveled to China, Italy, Morocco, Germany, in the Caribbean and Ivory Coast.

Miss Universe 2016

Mittenaere competed in Miss Universe 2016 where she succeeded Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines.^[9][10] Mittenaere became only the second woman from her country to win the crown after Christiane Martel won Miss Universe 1953, breaking France's 63-year title drought. Mittenaere is the first European winner since Miss Universe 2002 Oxana Fedorova of Russia, who was dethroned, and the first European titleholder to complete her year as Miss Universe since Mona Grudt of Norway who won Miss Universe 1990.^[11]

In the first part of the question and answer portion, Mittenaere called for opened borders.^[12] She was asked by Harvey : "Given today's worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees or do they have a right to close their borders?" Mittenaere replied:

{{quote|text=Throughout the world, people can choose to have borders open or close. In Europe, we have open borders. In France, we want to have the most globalisation that we can. We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can. Maybe someday that will change, but now we have open borders.}}

In the final part of the question and answer portion, the top three contestants were asked the same question by Harvey: "Name something over the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience ?" and she replied:

{{quote|text=I have failed several times in my life. I thought I had failed my first year in medical school because my name wasn’t on the passing list. So, the very same day I went to buy a new set of medical books to keep on studying. I think when you fail, you need to stand up and keep going, we are all able to do so. If I don’t win tonight, I will still keep on smiling tomorrow because I am proud to be part of the three finalists. I’ve learnt a lot from my failures and happily, I did end up passing my first year of medical school.^[13]}}

Iris Mittenaere was crowned with the DIC crown at the Miss Universe 2016 contest. As a result of a lawsuit between IMG and Diamonds International Corporation (DIC), she wore the Diamond Nexus Crown from March 2017 until the end of her reign.^[14]

During her reign as Miss Universe, Iris Mittenaere traveled to the Philippines, Indonesia (twice), Haiti, Cayman Islands, Ecuador, Mexico (twice), Peru, India, Egypt and numerous trips around the United States and France.

In her capacity as Miss Universe, she served as a judge at Puteri Indonesia in Jakarta, at Miss Egypt in Cairo where she visited the Great Pyramid of Giza, at Miss Peru in Lima, at Miss Guyana held in New York City and at Miss Diva in Mumbai, then visited the Taj Mahal. She attended events at the Embassy of France in Egypt, the Embassy of France in the Philippines, the Embassy of the United States, Manila, the Consulate general of France in New York and the Consulate general of France in Alexandria. She traveled to Bali, Indonesia to shoot a commercial for C 1000, a vitamin brand available in Indonesia and attended Farouk Systemss Global Conference in Cancun, Mexico. As a global ambassador for Smile Train, she traveled to Mexico City and Cap-Haïtien to visit cleft lip and cleft palate patients and witnessed first-hand a cleft surgery.

In March 2017, during her week-long homecoming celebration in Paris and in her hometown of Lille, France, Iris Mittenaere was invited by the President of France, François Hollande, at the Élysée Palace.

At New York Fashion Week, she walked the runway twice at Sherri Hill's fashion show in February and September 2017. In June 2017, she attended Joyrich x Snoop Dogg's Fashion show at MADE LA 2017 in Los Angeles. In her native country, France, she returned for a visit to walk the runway at the Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, to climb the steps of the Palais des Festivals at the Cannes Film Festival and to attend the AmFAR Charity Event, "Cinema against AIDS", in Cannes.

Iris Mittenaere eventually crowned her successor Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa as Miss Universe 2017 on 26 November 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[15][16][17]

From 4 to 9 December 2017, she participated to the Miss Universe's Christmas Tour in the Philippines, alongside her successor Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters and predecessor Pia Wurtzbach,^[18] then served as co-president of the jury with Jean-Paul Gaultier at Miss France 2018, appearing on stage with the five finalists as a part of the fashion swimsuit portion of the competition and putting an end to her international pageant career.^[19]

In December 2017, a documentary film about her Miss Universe's election, produced by Endemol Shine Group and titled From Miss France to Miss Universe, the fabulous destiny of Iris, is broadcast on TF1 and watched by 5.4 millions of viewers in France . The camera crew follows Iris Mittenaere's reign as Miss Universe, her humanitarian travel, trips and homecoming in France and shows her family reaction to her new life.

Post-pageantry

Iris Mittenaere began her television career in 2018, becoming a co-host of the French version of Ninja Warrior following the departure of TV host Sandrine Quétier.^[20] In February 2018, Iris Mittenaere presented an award at the Victoires de la Musique 2018, wearing designer Stéphane Rolland.^[21] In September 2018, Mittenaere began competing in the ninth season of Danse avec les stars, the French version of Dancing with the Stars. Her professional partner on the show was Anthony Colette, and together they placed second in the season's finale on 1 December.^[22] From February 2019, she is the host of the Lottery Drawings and EuroMillions on TF1.^[23]

In March 2018, she was invited by the First Lady of Ivory Coast to attend the 7th Gala dinner of the Children of Africa Foundation, marking its 20th anniversary and the opening of a new hospital.^[24] She also participated to a Smile Train event, visiting families of cleft patients in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.^[25] Iris Mittenaere also partnered with French Artist Philippe Shangti to create an artwork titled "I'm Iris, I'm not a princess", sold at an Auction for proceeds to Smile Train.

On 7 November 2018, Iris Mittenaere released her first autobiography titled in French Toujours y croire: Miss Univers, une jeune femme (pas) comme les autres which means Always believe in yourself: Miss Universe, a young woman (un)like any other. The book was published by HarperCollins.^[26] The book chronicles Mittenaere's origins in Northern France and her pageantry experience, in addition to beauty tutorials and advice for young women in order to build self-confidence.^[27] The same day, Mittenaere's Toujours y croire book tour launched, kicking off in her hometown of Lille. Other cities include Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Cannes, Dunkirk, Reims, Nantes in France, Brussels in Belgium and Geneva in Switzerland.^[28] From 4 to 7 April 2019, she will be the ambassador of the fifth edition of the Books and Stars Festival in Marrakech, Morocco and will meet with school-age children at Moroccan schools in order to discuss self-confidence.^[29]

Iris Mittenaere attended Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexandre Vauthier and Stephane Rolland's Fashion shows at Paris Fashion Week, Intimissimi's Fashion show in Verona, Italy and Elisabetta Franchi's Fashion show at Milan Fashion Week. She was invited to attend the Celebrity Fight Night's Charity Gala in Florence, Italy and the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco. On February 3, 2019, Iris Mittenaere is in the judging panel of Top Model Belgium 2019 at Le Lido.^[30] From February 12 to 17, 2019, she is the guest star in Jean-Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show at the Folies Bergère.^[31] She is Morgan (clothing)'s brand ambassador for 2019.^[32] From May 2, 2019 she will be a vedette (cabaret) in choreographer Kamel Ouali's L'Oiseau Paradis new revue at the Paradis Latin.^[33]

References

External links

• {{Twitter|IrisMittenaereO}}
• {{Instagram|irismittenaeremf}}
• [https://www.missuniverse.com/titleholder/825393/ Iris Mittenaere on Miss Universe Official Website]

• Dejan Milosavljev
• Dejan Mišković
• Dejan Mišković (basketball)
• Dejan Nikolić
• Dejan Ognjanović (Author)
• Dejan Ognjanović (author)
• Dejan Orešković
• Dejanovic (family)
• Dejanovic (noble family)
• Dejanovics
• Dejanovic (surname)
• Dejanović (disambiguation)
• Dejanović family
• Dejanović (family)
• Dejanovići
• Dejanović (noble family)
• Dejanovićs
• Dejan Pandurevic
• Dejan Pandurević
• Dejan Panovski
• Dejan Parezanović
• Dejan Perić (footballer born 1979)
• Dejan Petrovic
• Dejan Petrovič
• Dejan Poljaković