Shandi Finnessey Biography
Shandi Finnessey is a model, actress, TV host, and beauty queen from the United States. She is best known for being Miss Missouri USA when she won the Miss USA title. She was previously Miss Missouri 2002 and competed in Miss America, winning a preliminary award.
How old is Shandi Finnessey? – Age
She is 44 years old as of 2022. She was born on 9 June 2022. She was born in 1978 in Florissant, Missouri, United States.
Shandi Finnessey Family – Education
Patrick and Linda Finnessey are her parents. Mildred Finnessey and Fern Miller are her grandmothers, and she has three brothers (Shane, Damion, and Paul). She attended the public high school McCluer North High School. Lindenwood University awarded her a Bachelor of Science in psychology in December 1999.
Shandi Finnessey Husband – Children
She dated August Busch IV in 2003, and she has also dated Italo Zanzi. Finnessey announced her engagement to businessman Ben Higgins on Twitter on September 24, 2014. According to another autobiographical tweet, they married on July 11, 2015. Finn Arthur, born on June 10, 2016, Bodhi James, born on May 1, 2018, and Charlie Bear, born on May 5, 2020, are the couple’s three sons.
Shandi Finnessey Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $1 million.
Shandi Finnessey Dancing with the Stars
Finnessey made her Dancing with the Stars fourth season debut on March 19, 2007. Dancing with the Stars is an American dance competition television show that debuted on ABC on June 1, 2005. It is the American version of the UK series Strictly Come Dancing, as well as one of several Dancing with the Stars franchise iterations. Celebrities are paired with professional dancers in the show. Each couple performs predetermined dances while competing for judges’ points and audience votes. Each week, the couple with the lowest combined total of judge points and audience votes is eliminated, until only the champion dance pair remains.
Shandi Finnessey Lingo
Finnessey co-hosted Lingo and PlayMania on GSN after finishing her reign as Miss USA. She hosted Lingo from August 2005, the start of the show’s fourth season, until it was cancelled in 2008. She debuted in April 2006 with the interactive series PlayMania, which was split into two episodes on February 23, 2007.
Shandi Finnessey PETA
She posed naked for a PETA anti-fur campaign against the use of fur coats as prizes in beauty pageants. Moakler, Finnessey, Castillo, and Campanella joined PETA in urging the entire pageant industry to adopt a fur-free policy. Furthermore, the former Miss USAs want pageants nationwide to stop awarding fur coats as prizes, even though some state pageants still do.
Shandi Finnessey Ready for Love
Finnessey appeared on Ready for Love in 2013, where she competed for the attention of Ernesto Arguello. On the show, she won Arguello’s heart, but their relationship was short-lived in real life.
Shandi Finnessey Miss USA
As Miss Saint Louis County in her senior year of college, Finnessey finished first runner-up to Denette Roderick in the 1999 Miss Missouri USA 2000 pageant. She participated in the event again the following year, in 2000, and finished second to Melana Scantlin, who finished first, and Larissa Meek, who won, in the Miss Missouri USA 2001 competition.
Finnessey finished third in the Miss Oktoberfest competition in the year 2000. Jenna Edwards, who had been Miss Teen All-American in 1999 and held the titles of Miss Florida USA in 2004 and 2007, won the pageant. Jennifer Glover, the 1999 Miss United States International and 2002 and 2001 Miss California, finished as the first runner-up.
In the Miss Missouri system, Finnessey won the title of Miss Jackson on November 18, 2000, and she finished second to Jennifer Hover in the Mexico, Missouri, Miss Missouri pageant from June 3–9, 2001. In the Miss Missouri system, Finnessey won the title of Miss St. Louis Metro local and went on to win the title of Miss Missouri in 2002, succeeding Hover. Despite having slammed her hand into a car door that weekend, she won the competition. She displayed her talent by playing an arrangement of “Flight of the Bumblebee” on the piano during the competition. She was asked what she learned about having three brothers during her on-stage interview as one of the five finalists, and she responded, “Be quick in the bathroom.”
She competed for Missouri in the Miss America 2003 pageant, where she placed tenth despite winning an evening gown preliminary award. She alternated between playing the piano and the violin during the Miss America system events’ talent portion, which the Miss USA system does not use. She competed in the Miss America pageant as a pianist.
Finnessey won the Miss Missouri USA pageant on her third attempt at Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and was crowned by outgoing titleholder Tara Bollinger, less than a year after giving up her title as Miss Metro St. Louis USA 2003. Finnessey participated in a number of charitable endeavors during her six-month reign as Miss Missouri USA, including the Variety Club Telethon, the St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm Up for local charities, the AIDS Foundation, the Special Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, and Gilda’s Club. She qualified for both the Miss Missouri USA 1983 and Miss Missouri USA 1986 pageants alongside Barbara Webster and Miss Missouri 1987 and Miss Missouri USA 1983, respectively.
In front of hosts Nancy O’Dell and Billy Bush as well as judges Jeff Gordon, Jerry Buss, John Salley, Mekhi Phifer, Rocco DiSpirito, and Jill Stuart at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on April 12, 2004, she competed as the representative of Missouri in the nationally televised Miss USA 2004 pageant. She responded, “Definitely experience because you get your knowledge through experience,” when she was asked, “Whether experience or education serves a person better in life.” She competed on the idea of incorporating people who struggle with mental illness into society. She became the first woman from Missouri to win the Miss USA title during the nationally televised pageant. Finnessey became an advocate for breast and ovarian cancer awareness and research during her time as Miss USA. She has also collaborated with the American Cancer Society, the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Convention, Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation, and the National Down Syndrome Convention. Donald Trump, co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization and the pageant, provided Finnessey with a high-end apartment on Riverside Drive in New York City.
After winning the title of Miss USA, Finnessey went on to compete as the United States’ representative at the international Miss Universe competition, which took place in Quito, Ecuador, in May 2004 and ended on June 1, 2004. She finished second to Australia’s Jennifer Hawkins, the competition’s winner, in the international broadcast competition. Petra Nemcova, Emilio Estefan, and Bo Derek served as judges at the event, which was hosted by Bush and Daisy Fuentes.
Finnessey represented the Miss Universe Organization while she was Miss USA. Jennifer Hawkins (Miss Universe, Australia) and Shelley Hennig (Miss Teen USA, Louisiana) were her “sisters” in the Miss Universe Organization competition in 2004, which she won in 2004. Ericka Dunlap (Florida), the current Miss America, held the title.
