The contest organizers said Thursday that Yulia Yalovitsyna, a 29-year-old marine biologist from Petrozavodsk, was excluded from the short list of 50 candidates after they learned of an "inappropriate video" of her that appeared online.
“As such, Tourism Queensland has decided to exclude [Yalovitsyna] from the selection process under the terms and conditions of the job,” Tourism Queensland head Anthony Hayes said in a statement.
Yalovitsyna was the only Russian to make it to the final stage of the contest, which attracted more than 34,000 applicants worldwide for the job of caretaker on Hamilton Island, off the Australian coast. The competition is part of a publicity drive by tourism officials in Australia's northern state of Queensland.
Yalovitsyna said Thursday that the sex video featuring her was on the hard drive of a computer that was seized as part of a criminal investigation against her husband, who is suspected of illegally distributing pornography.
She said those who leaked the video were conducting a "calculated campaign" against her and her husband, who she maintains is innocent of any wrongdoing, RIA-Novosti reported.
"Something that is part of my private life was posted on the Internet," Yalovitsyna told RIA-Novosti. "The sexual lives of me and of my beloved were opened to public access."
Yalovitsyna said she had agreed to be removed from the contest in order not exacerbate the situation, RIA-Novosti reported.
The winner of the contest will be paid AU$150,000 ($95,000) for a six-month job that includes onerous duties such as whale watching, snorkeling and testing luxury spa treatments.
Haynes said the criminal case involving her husband played no role in Yalovitsyna's exclusion from the contest.
"[She] has told us she is not involved in this matter, and our investigations have not found any evidence to the contrary," Haynes said in the statement, which was posted on Tourism Queensland's web site.
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