Miss Colombia was wiping away tears backstage when she was asked if she had a message for her fans, and she assured them she was happy.

'Everything happens for a reason,' she said as fellow contestants hugged and comforted her backstage in the video tweeted by the official Miss Universe twitter account.

'I'm happy for all I did, I'm so happy. Thank you for voting for me.'

Harvey's mistake was the final twist in the three-hour pageant that sometimes felt more like a reality show.

The host revealed at the beginning of the show that for the first time in Miss University history the audience would have a voice, their real-time votes added to the scores of the judges, actress Nicey Nash, blogger Perez Hilton, former Miss USA Olivia Culpo and football player Emmitt Smith.

But it wasn't until Harvey read the name of the top three that he shared that there was actually one more secret judge. The 77 women who they had spent the last three weeks in Las Vegas with, who now stood behind them, would have a say as well.

'Sure hope you've been nice for the past three weeks,' Harvey said.

The pageant began with the beloved national costume competition, where a number of women stacked on the feathers on their extravagant looks to represent their countries.

Gutierrez had shared her determination to get her country back to back wins throughout the competition