(LONDON)-- Miss United Kingdom will be allowed to compete in the Miss World beauty contest despite a controversy over topless photographs of her in a tabloid newspaper.

Organizers of the event said 18-year-old Nicola Willoughby was "duped" into doing a topless photo shoot and said her heart-felt plea not to be excluded from the global beauty show had found favor.

"Everything is fine. She is going ahead with the competition," a spokeswoman for Miss World said.

"She's was duped into doing it. She was young, she needed the money ... and he (the photographer) promised her the photos would never ever be published," she said.

The Miss World contest, eager not to be seen as a "degrading cattle market" as feminists once branded it -- is being held in Britain for the first time for 10 years.