Despite Lesbian, Drug Scandal Miss USA Tara Conner Says No Changes

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

Despite the scandals that plagued her reign last year, former Miss USA Tara Conner says if she had the chance to do it all over, "I wouldn't have done anything differently." Controversy became Conner's last name after reports surfaced that she turned into a party animal, had been sneaking men into the Trump Place apartment appointed for Miss USA, was drinking underage, tested positive for cocaine, and kissed Miss Teen USA Katie Blair in public.

Despite Lesbian, Drug Charges Miss USA Tara Conner Says No Changes

Conner escaped dethronement only after Miss USA pageant owner/exec producer Donald Trump decided to give her a second chance and she entered rehab last December.

"I know it sounds crazy," says Conner of not wanting to change a thing about the past year, "but we all make mistakes. No one in this world is perfect. I can sit here and try to beat myself up about being the one who did go out too much, but all of these mistakes have formed the person I am today, who is someone I'm very proud of and have a lot of respect for."

Connor will be seen offering the benefit of her hindsight to 2007's reigning beauty queens, Miss Universe Riyo Mori, Miss USA Rachel Smith and Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, in MTV's Oct. 10-debuting reality series "Pageant Place," which chronicles what happens to a beauty queen after the win.

"I pretty much touched base on every issue you could touch base on," notes Conner, "so I'm an unofficial peer consultant there to try to keep them sane, help them look on the bright side of things and realize everything in life is temporary."

In retrospect, she says, "The crazy thing about it is that when I received the title, I didn't know what I wanted to achieve because of this disease, alcoholism, and all the 'isms' I fell into." In fact, she says now, "In no way did I think I would win and be put in this position, and when the first runner up got called, I thought, 'Oh, s---! What do I do now?' I was scared to death. I didn't realize how much went into it, how stressful it was. … I was only able to get three good sober months in as Miss USA, but it was still the best year of my life. It was the hardest year but still the best."

Source: National Ledger