Diana Hayden – Third Indian Woman to be crowned Miss World title in 1997

Diana Hayden is a former Indian model, who shot to instant fame and celebrity status after she was crowned as Miss World in 1997 at Baie Lazare, Seychelles. She is only the third Indian woman to claim this crown after Reita Faria in 1966 and Aishwarya Rai in 1994. She was the first runner-up at Femina Miss India 1997, crowned as Miss India World and was sent to Seychelles to represent India at Miss World beauty pageant. She also won Miss Photogenic and Spectacular Swimwear subtitles along with “Miss World – Asia and Oceania” title at Seychelles. She is the only Miss World to claim all these three subtitles.

Diana Hayden belonged to an Anglo-Indian family of Hyderabad, and was born in 1973. She worked under a few private firms and made a late entry to modelling field. She participated in Miss. India beauty pageant at the age of 23 in 1997, and became the first runner-up. Same year she was crowned Miss World at Seychelles. She made brief career in Bollywood, though it was not big. She was first seen in a supporting role in 2003 Urmila starrer, Tehzeeb, followed by Ab Bas, Othello: A South African Tale, Lorie etc.

Diana Hayden – Some interesting and unknown facts

1. When all Indian beauty pageant winners are famous for joining Bollywood, Diana never took acting as a profession. Yet she played brief roles in a few Hindi movies and TV shows.

2. She concentrated on to modelling career along with charity activities.

3. In 2012 she published one book A Beautiful Guide.

4. She had frozen 16 eggs between 2007 and 2008, and used it for giving birth to girls in 2016 and 2018 respectively. She married Collin Dick from Las Vegas in 2013.

5. In 2018 she came to media attention after a few years when she slammed Tripura CM Biplab Deb’s claim that brown skinned beauties like Diana doesn’t own traits to win a crown or deserve it.