Reita Faria

Reita Faria Powell (née Faria; born 23 August 1943) is an Indian physician, former model and the winner of Miss World 1966 pageant. She is the first Indian Miss World winner and the first to be qualified as a medical doctor.

Early life Reita Faria was born in the Matunga locality of Mumbai (then British India’s Bombay) on 23 August 1943. Her parents were Goan Catholics, her father John was from the village of Tivim and his wife Antoinette was from Santa Cruz, Goa, both then part of Portuguese Goa. Faria was the couple's second daughter after their eldest, Philomena. The family was middle class, with her father working in a mineral water factory and her mother running a beauty salon.

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.

Career

In pageants Having been born in Bombay, Faria thereby participated in the Miss Bombay contest, which she won. She subsequently won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest in 1966 (not to be confused with the Femina Miss India, won by Yasmin Daji in 1966). This made her eligible to represent India at Miss World 1966.

Faria 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.

Personal life Faria lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband, endocrinologist David Powell, whom she married in 1971. She has two daughters.