Confession: JonBenét Ramsey’s Dad Admits He Regrets Allowing Her to Take Part in Beauty Pageants — But Says He Didn't Know Any Better at the Time
Aug. 7 2023, Published 9:05 a.m. ET
JonBenét Ramsey’s father, John Ramsey, recently admitted that he regrets allowing his young daughter to participate in beauty pageants before her mysterious murder almost 27 years ago, RadarOnline.com can report.
In a surprising interview to come on what would have been JonBenét’s 33rd birthday on Sunday, John spoke out and discussed his six-year-old daughter’s life before she was killed and found in the basement of the Ramsey’s Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996.
According to John, he acknowledges that allowing JonBenét to participate in beauty pageants was “not a good idea” because of the “unwanted attention” the pageants brought.
He also suggested that JonBenét’s participation in the beauty pageants may have been connected to her devastating murder.
"I didn't like the costumes and stuff," John confessed in an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday. “But I didn't say anything because Patsy and JonBenét were having such a good time together.”
"I thought these pageants were just attended by moms and dads and grandparents, and so I didn't really worry about that exposure,” he continued. "But we later learned there were people attending these pageants that had no business being there: pedophiles.”
"So that was not a good idea at all,” John admitted, “but we were so naïve."
Patsy Ramsey, John’s late wife and JonBenét’s mother, was also a beauty queen. Patsy passed away in June 2006 after a years-long battle with stage 4 ovarian cancer.
"People accused Patsy of being a mother who was living vicariously through her daughter and dragging her to these pageants but that was absolutely not the case,” John continued during his interview on what would have been JonBenét’s 33rd birthday on Sunday.
"It was the other way around: JonBenét loved to do it because she loved to perform and sing and dance,” he continued. "And Patsy supported her because I think she was trying to pack a lot of mother-daughter memories into what she felt would be a limited life."
John also revealed that he was late and missed what would end up being his daughter’s last beauty pageant before her tragic murder.
"I used to go to them when I could," John said. "On what I think must have been her last pageant, I was late and missed her performance.”
"And she came running through with the medal and said, 'Daddy, look what I won for you!' and it was the all-talent winner,” John continued. "She was so proud of that.”
"And shortly after she'd be gone."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, JonBenét was found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of the Ramsey family home on the morning of December 26, 1996.
Although John and Patsy were named as suspects in their six-year-old daughter’s murder, they were eventually cleared in 2008 after DNA evidence exonerated the couple.
John Ramsey has spent the past 27 years pushing for answers regarding his daughter’s murder.
He has also pushed for the case to be removed from the Boulder, Colorado Police Department’s jurisdiction and given to an agency that will use new DNA technology to hopefully find JonBenét’s killer.
"We've fought for years to get more DNA testing done, and technology has advanced dramatically in the last 25 years," John explained last year.
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