Reita Faria Powell[1] (néeFaria; 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]
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]
Reita Faria from India won the Miss World 1966 title in the grand slam pageant held in London on November 17, 1966. She is the only Miss World who qualified as a doctor during her reign. At the age of 70, Reita still manages to look beautiful and can still be titled as one of the most beautiful women in the world
Reita Faria was born in Mumbai’s (then British India’s Bombay) Matunga district on 23rd August 1943.
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]
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]
Reita Faria is the first Asian to win the Miss World title in the year of 1966. She is the only Miss World who qualified as a Doctor during her reign. Faria 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.
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.
Faria currently[when?] lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband, endocrinologist David Powell, whom she married in 1971. She has two daughters,