What are documented accounts from former Miss Universe/Miss Teen USA contestants about backstage access during Trump’s ownership?

1. What the former contestants say: multiple accounts from 1997 Miss Teen USA

Several women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant told reporters that Trump unexpectedly entered a communal dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing, with Mariah Billado, Miss Teen Vermont 1997, recounting that she “remember[ed] putting on my dress really quick” because there was “a man in here” and that some girls were left sobbing afterward ^{[1] [5]}. BuzzFeed’s reporting originally collected at least four such testimonies, and later accounts referenced a fifth contestant corroborating that a male owner or figure entered backstage during that year’s preparations ^{[2] [6]}.

2. Corroboration, variations and other years’ recollections

Reporting across outlets shows consistent themes but also differences in detail: some contestants described a sudden, wordless entrance that caused panic during rehearsals, while other former pageant participants from different years recalled Trump being backstage at televised events without describing nudity or inappropriate touching; for example, a Miss USA 2001 contestant told The Guardian she recalled Trump being backstage on the night of the televised show but did not allege sexual misconduct during that particular visit ^[7]. Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, has publicly criticized Trump’s conduct in other ways, but accounts vary by year and context ^[7].

3. Trump’s own statements and the fact-checking context

Trump publicly boasted in a 2005 Howard Stern interview about going “backstage before a show” and seeing contestants undressed, but in that exchange he was discussing Miss USA and Miss Universe (adult) pageants rather than Miss Teen USA; fact-checkers including Snopes and others have emphasized that his recorded brag refers to adult contestants and that social posts have at times edited or misattributed the quote to suggest he admitted entering teen dressing rooms ^{[3] [4] [6]}. Fact-checking coverage makes two distinct points clear: Trump admitted entering contestant backstage areas in his telling, and independent former-contestant allegations specifically target his presence at teen backstage areas in 1997 ^{[3] [2]}.

4. How reporters and fact-checkers treat evidence and limits of public reporting

News outlets and fact-checkers have treated the former contestants’ statements as credible firsthand allegations but stop short of judicial findings; reporting primarily rests on contemporaneous recollections and interviews rather than police reports or court records, and sources like Rolling Stone, The Guardian and People framed the accounts as allegations collected by journalists rather than proven legal determinations ^{[5] [7] [1]}. Snopes and other verifiers explicitly note gaps about which pageant Trump referenced in his own comments and warn against conflating his boasting about adult pageants with the teen-contestant allegations ^{[3] [4]}.

5. Bottom line: documented contestant accounts vs. contested interpretations

Documented accounts from former Miss Teen USA contestants — especially several from the 1997 pageant — state that a man identified as Trump entered changing areas where minors were undressing, and multiple mainstream outlets reported those allegations ^{[1] [2] [5]}. At the same time, Trump’s own recorded remarks about walking backstage involve adult pageants, fact-checkers point out the distinction, and some other former contestants give differing memories of intensity or timing of backstage visits, so public reporting shows both corroborated allegations from contestants and contested interpretations of Trump’s own comments ^{[3] [4] [7]}.