'Ghost' remark haunts Miss Colombia: 'People don't ever understand what I said'

MANILA, Philippines — The crowning moment of Miss Universe 2015 continues to follow 1st runner-up and five-minute champion Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez nearly five years later.

It can be recalled that then-host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced her as Miss Universe that year before shortly correcting himself that it was Philippines' Pia Wurtzbach who would take home the crown.

Then five years later in an interview with Miss Colombia 2017 Laura Barjum and pageant enthusiast Hector Cermeno, Ariadna controversially spoke her mind about Pia.

“I saw Pia only twice in the group. Once I saw her once in the dining room and again during a rehearsal… But she was a like a ghost-person…Kinda you see her once and you never see her again. Something sooo strange! Nobody would see her,” Ariadna said in Spanish as translated by local pageant site Pageanthology 101.

“I did not notice her and when I did, I did not think of her as my competition. That is the truth,” she added.

Ariadna has since clarified that she was misunderstood and meant no malice toward Pia.

"[People] don't ever understand what I said... I feel so sad for the super nice [Filipinos] I've met in my life. They are NOT like this," Miss Colombia commented in response to a social media follower, as quoted by entertainment media.

In a separate post, Ariadna left a cryptic caption, which some have interpreted as shade toward her critics. 

Pia, meanwhile, has not officially responded to the controversy.