Are there civil lawsuits filed by Miss Universe contestants against Donald Trump and what were their outcomes?

Executive summary — Short answer, settled and mixed outcomes.

Multiple civil cases connected to Miss Universe pageant contestants and Donald Trump exist in the public record, but the clearest, well-documented dispute involving a contestant ended with a large judgment entered against the contestant and later complex settlements and recovery actions; separate, high-profile legal battles involving Trump and media partners or other women are related context but are not lawsuits filed by Miss Universe contestants. The most prominent contestant case involved Sheena Monnin and resulted in a multi‑million dollar judgment against her, and other major legal events around the pageant involved Trump and broadcasters rather than contestants. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

1. How a single contestant’s claim turned into a multimillion‑dollar judgment — Sheena Monnin’s saga.

Sheena Monnin, a former Miss Pennsylvania USA, publicly resigned from the Miss USA 2012 competition alleging the pageant was "rigged," which prompted the Miss Universe Organization to sue her for defamation and lost business, seeking millions; arbitration proceedings and a default judgment produced a $5 million award against Monnin after she failed to attend the arbitration hearing, and appeals preserved the judgment in reported accounts ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The reporting shows the organization and its owners pursued legal remedies aggressively; outcomes included both judgments and later litigation between Monnin and her lawyer as she sought to contest enforcement and recover funds, creating a layered legal aftermath rather than a simple win for either side ^{[1] [3]}.

2. Conflicting reports and settlements — what the record actually says about payment and resolution.

Accounts of Monnin’s post‑judgment path differ across reports: some state the $5 million arbitration judgment stood and was upheld on appeal, while other summaries note Monnin later sued her attorney for malpractice and recovered some expenses, with indications of separate settlement money changing hands; at least one report claims Monnin later reached a settlement reported to be over a million dollars, though specifics and public documentation of full payment are not uniform across the sources ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The practical result is mixed: legally enforceable awards were entered in Trump’s favor, but monetary collections, malpractice litigation, and private settlements produced an ambiguous net outcome when viewed across different accounts ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Big‑picture: lawsuits over the pageant often involved broadcasters and corporations, not contestants.

A major legal fight tied to the Miss Universe enterprise involved Donald Trump and Univision after Trump’s public remarks prompted Univision to drop the Miss USA/Miss Universe telecasts; Trump sued for massive damages and the parties settled in 2016, resolving that corporate dispute without it being a contestant‑filed civil case ^{[4] [5] [6]}. This demonstrates a broader pattern: many high‑profile legal matters around the pageant concern contracts, media rights, and corporate responses rather than civil actions initiated by individual contestants against Trump. That distinction matters when asking whether contestants have routinely sued Trump — the record shows instances of litigation touching contestants, but not a widespread wave of contestant‑filed suits against him ^[4].

4. Related legal context: other women’s civil suits against Trump are separate and instructive but not contestant cases.

High‑profile civil cases involving other women, such as E. Jean Carroll’s successful suits for sexual abuse and defamation, resulted in significant damage awards against Trump and illustrate the legal perils he has faced in personal‑conduct litigation; these are not Miss Universe contestant cases, but they provide useful context about the kinds of civil claims brought against him and the potential remedies plaintiffs have won ^{[7] [8]}. Distinguishing plaintiff identities is essential: Carroll’s victories show juries and judges can side with accusers in personal‑conduct suits, but they do not change the facts about the Miss Universe‑related litigation, which centers on Monnin and corporate disputes with broadcasters ^{[7] [8]}.

5. Bottom line: one prominent contestant case, corporate suits, and unresolved public details.

The evidence establishes that at least one Miss USA/Universe contestant, Sheena Monnin, became the subject of a civil suit tied to statements she made, producing a $5 million judgment and subsequent settlement/malpractice litigation threads, while major litigation around the pageant often involved Trump and networks like Univision resolved by settlement ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}. Public records show judgments and settlements, but details about final collections and private settlement terms remain uneven across reports, so the straightforward claim that "contestants filed civil lawsuits against Trump" is partially true in the Monnin matter, but most high‑profile lawsuits involving the pageant were corporate or involved non‑contestant plaintiffs. ^{[1] [4] [7]}