It is likely that Carrie Prejean Boller, 38, could have starred in an American teen drama: a blonde California beauty queen who marries a successful football player and, armed with poise and polished rhetoric, carves out a place in conservative U.S. politics. But this all-American heroine recently found herself in a very different kind of drama.
Instead of pursuing a Miss Universe crown or an Emmy Award, next week she is set to receive the “Catholic Heroine” award from the anti-Zionist group Catholics for Catholics, which urges its followers to boycott Israel and promote American nationalism.
Prejean Boller will accept the honor at a gala alongside several prominent critics of Israel, led by podcaster and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens. Her path to that stage has been turbulent. Earlier this month she was removed from the White House Religious Freedom Commission, an appointment granted by President Donald Trump, after what critics described as dismissing antisemitism and clashing with fellow panelists during the commission’s first formal hearing.
The state commission, established by executive order, was tasked with addressing challenges facing Jewish communities and examining issues of religious freedom ahead of a final report to the president. Instead of focusing on the commission’s stated mission, Prejean Boller arrived at the hearing wearing a Palestinian flag pin on her lapel. She used her speaking time to defend figures such as Owens and conservative host Tucker Carlson, urging participants to stop labeling them antisemitic and instead describe them as “anti-Zionist.”
She remained unmoved when presented with examples of Owens’ support for antisemitic posts by rapper Kanye West, her remarks minimizing the Holocaust and her accusations that Jews were “Christ killers,” “controllers of the slave trade” and “pedophiles.”
Throughout the hearing, Prejean Boller repeatedly accused Jewish witnesses of Islamophobia and pressed them to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza. It later emerged that Samira Munshi, a Muslim activist and member of the commission’s advisory council, had messaged Prejean Boller during the session, prompting speculation that the two had coordinated. Later that day, Prejean Boller posted a smiling photo with Munshi from an event hosted by the Palestine House of Freedom, an organization that has faced criticism over alleged ties to Hamas.
Her conduct drew boos from the audience and left fellow commissioners visibly stunned. Two days later, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the commission’s chair, formally announced her removal. “No member of this commission has the right to hijack a hearing to promote a political and personal agenda on any issue,” he said.
While Catholics for Catholics quickly defended Prejean Boller, saying she had bravely resisted demands for blind support of Israel, established Catholic institutions distanced themselves. Simone Rizkallah, director of the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism, said Prejean Boller was not a role model and that her removal was warranted. “Violence against Jews should concern every Catholic in the United States, and her conduct reflects, at best, insensitivity and, at worst, clear malice,” she said.
An overnight conservative symbol
Caroline Michelle Prejean was born in 1987 in San Diego and raised in a traditional evangelical home. In 1996 her parents separated in a bitter divorce that included mutual allegations of abusive behavior toward the children and homosexuality, leading to a custody battle that lasted a decade. She has described the divorce as a trauma that shaped her life.
She attended public high school and later enrolled at the private Christian San Diego Christian College, where she studied special education while volunteering in church activities.
Her breakthrough came in 2009 when she won the Miss California title and went on to represent the state in the Miss USA pageant. During the competition, blogger Perez Hilton, serving as a judge, asked whether she believed every U.S. state should legalize same-sex marriage. Her response made her an overnight conservative icon. She said she had been raised to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
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Carrie Prejean after winning the 'Miss California' title
(Photo: Steve Marcus/ Reuters)
Hilton, himself an LGBTQ figure, reacted angrily and later said her answer cost her the crown, placing her second. Then-pageant owner Donald Trump stepped in to defend her, saying it was “simply her belief,” while also criticizing then-President Barack Obama, who had previously opposed same-sex marriage.
Trump’s support did not last. As Prejean’s profile rose, gossip sites scrutinized her past, and revealing modeling photos from her youth surfaced online. Pageant organizers also complained that she had skipped required charity appearances and instead gave unauthorized interviews to conservative media outlets to promote what they described as personal political agendas.
In June 2009, citing repeated contract violations and inappropriate conduct, Trump formally dismissed her and stripped her of the Miss California title.
The firing led to a legal battle. Prejean sued pageant organizers for defamation and religious discrimination, alleging she was targeted for her conservative Christian beliefs. Organizers countersued, demanding she repay $5,200 loaned to her for breast augmentation surgery before the competition.
During early discovery, organizers’ lawyers presented her legal team with a sex tape she had filmed herself at age 17. Fearing it would be introduced as evidence and made public, Prejean withdrew her lawsuit. The parties reached a confidential settlement out of court.
Soon afterward she published a book asserting that liberal media, Hollywood and pageant organizers had conspired in a smear campaign to destroy her life because she stood by her Christian principles.
'Be good Gentiles'
Following the scandals, Prejean sought a quieter life. In July 2010 she married NFL quarterback Kyle Boller. She adopted his surname, and the couple have two children.
In 2020 she returned to politics, joining Trump’s reelection campaign advisory board and representing the Women for Trump coalition. Despite past tensions, she became a regular presence on conservative television, defending Trump, amplifying his message and challenging his critics.
She also emerged as an outspoken opponent of COVID-19 restrictions and school mask mandates, frequently attending school board meetings to criticize policies.
Later she campaigned against the inclusion of drag queens at children’s events, calling them “groomers,” a term widely used in conservative circles to accuse individuals of sexual exploitation of minors.
Her renewed activism did not go unnoticed by Trump, an avid consumer of conservative media. In May he appointed her to his Religious Freedom Commission.
Shortly beforehand, Prejean Boller converted from evangelical Christianity to Catholicism. She said she wanted to distance herself from Christian Zionism, which she associates with evangelical circles and argues had turned Jesus into a political agenda.
After her removal from the commission, she claimed the decision had been planned once she began posting criticism of the war in Gaza. She accused Patrick and televangelist Paula White, a close Trump religious adviser, of coordinating against her.
Prejean Boller continues to argue that accusations of antisemitism against her are inherently anti-Christian. Since her dismissal, her following on X has grown, and she has urged supporters, using a recurring slogan, to “be good Gentiles and follow.”
She has also declared that she intends to attend the commission’s next hearing. “I am staying on this commission until I hear from the president himself,” she said. “I want the president to admit: Is he ‘America First’ or ‘Israel First’?”