Miss France 2008 has been asked to return her crown

Miss France 2008 has been asked to return her crown after a magazine published suggestive photographs of the 22-year old model.

Valerie Begue, from the French-run Indian Ocean island of Reunion, was selected Miss France 2008 earlier this month. But she has refused to resign, saying she had been betrayed.

Before the competition, contestants assure that they have never been photographed in compromising positions. But, one of the pictures shows Valerie licking yoghurt provocatively, while another has her floating on a wooden cross in a swimming pool.

Following the surfacing of the pictures, President of the Miss France contest, Genevieve de Fontenay, went on French radio to demand that Valerie would have to stand down, or would be stripped of her crown. “If she had some courage and a bit of dignity she would say “I’m resigning because I’m not worthy to carry on as Miss France”,” the Australian quoted Genevieve, as telling Europe 1 radio.

She went on to say that if she had been aware of the pictures, Valerie “would never have been let into the Miss France competition. I wouldn’t want to be seen touring the provinces with a girl like that.”

This is not the first instance when a beauty queen has embarrassed the competition organisers. The 2004 Miss France, Laeticia Bleger, was suspended for six months after photos of her surfaced in Playboy .