Reita Faria

Reita Faria Powell[1] (née Faria; born 23 August 1943)[2] is an Indian physician, former model and the winner of the Miss World 1966 pageant. She is also the first Miss World winner to be qualified as a physician.[3]

Reita Faria Powell
Faria after winning the Miss World 1966
Born
Reita Faria

(1943-08-23) 23 August 1943
Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
(present-day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Alma mater
Occupations
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Spouse
David Powell
​
(m. 1971)​
Children2
Beauty pageant titleholder
TitleMiss Bombay 1966
Eve's Weekly Miss India 1966
Miss World 1966
Major
competition(s)		Miss Bombay 1966
(Winner)
Eve's Weekly Miss India 1966
(Winner)
Miss World 1966
(Winner)
(Best in Eveningwear)

Early life

Reita Faria was born in Mumbai’s (then British India’s Bombay) Matunga district on 23rd August 1943.

Her parents were Goan Catholics with her father John hailing from the village of Tivim and her mother Antoinette belonging to Santa Cruz.[4] Faria was the pairs second daughter after their eldest, Philomena. The family was a middle class one, with her father working in a mineral water factory and her mother running a salon.[5]

Growing up, Faria, with an adult height of 5 feet 8 inches, was unusually tall for an Indian girl and made fun of by schoolboys who nicknamed her ‘mommy long legs’. Nevertheless Faria used her tall and lean build to her advantage in sports, playing ‘everything from throwball, netball and badminton’. Her first newspaper headlines were for scoring hat-tricks in hockey.[6]

Career

Faria was born in Bombay. Soon after winning the Miss Bombay Crown, she won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest 1966 competition (not to be confused with the Femina Miss India, won by Yasmin Daji).

During the Miss World 1966 contest, she won the sub-titles 'Best in Swimsuit' and 'Best in Eveningwear' for wearing a saree. She eventually went on to win the Miss World 1966 crown at the climax of the event, beating 51 competing delegates from other countries.[7]

After her one-year tenure as Miss World, she began receiving various offers to act in films. Faria refused lucrative modelling and acting contracts, and instead concentrated on medical studies. She was a student at the Grant Medical College & Sir J. J. Group of Hospitals, where she completed her M.B.B.S. degree. Thereafter she went on to study at King's College Hospital, London. She married her mentor David Powell, in 1971, and in 1973, the couple shifted to Dublin, where she started her medical practice.[8]

Reita was a judge at Femina Miss India in 1998, and has come back to judge the Miss World competition on a few occasions. She was a judge along with Demis Roussos at the Miss World final of 1976 held in London where Cindy Breakespeare was crowned Miss World.

Personal life

Faria currently lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband, endocrinologist David Powell, whom she married in 1971. She has two daughters,[9]

References
  1. "Makers of India - Women of Fame". Indian Mirror. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  2. Goa Miscellania
  3. "Not Just a Pretty Face: Reita Faria, the first Asian to win Miss World and even qualified as a physician". Indian Express. 18 November 2018.
  4. "Reita Faria walks down memory lane in Goa". The Times of India. 4 December 2016. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  5. Sanpui, Shohini Bose,Rahul (17 November 2021). "She The First | Reita Faria: Won Miss World, Rejected Film Offers To Be a Doctor". TheQuint. Retrieved 31 July 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. "Reita Faria walks down memory lane in Goa". The Times of India. 4 December 2016. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  7. "51 Years Before Manushi, Reita Faria Was India's First Miss World". The Quint. 18 November 2018.
  8. "Lost and found: Thirty newsmakers from the pages of Indian history and where they are now: Cover Story". India Today. 3 July 2006. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  9. "The first Indian to win the Miss World title". Rediff News. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
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