Plenty of people know Elle Smith by one of two titles: Miss USA 2021, or the partner of England captain Leah Williamson — the career in between is journalism. She won the crown for Kentucky in 2021 (Infobae, Latin American news outlet), and her relationship with Williamson became public in 2022 (Grazia Daily, women’s lifestyle magazine); the verified record — the title, the degree, the partnership — is easy to list, the unverified details need flagging separately.
Born: June 20, 1998 ·
Height: 5’10” ·
Title: Miss USA 2021 ·
Partner: Leah Williamson
Quick snapshot
- Won the Miss USA 2021 title, representing Kentucky (Infobae)
- Born in Springfield, Ohio, on June 20, 1998 (Grazia Daily)
- In a public relationship with Leah Williamson since 2022 (Grazia Daily)
- Ethnicity — Smith has not publicly disclosed her heritage
- Exact start date of the relationship with Williamson
- Reported involvement in a Rick and Morty episode — repeated online, unconfirmed
- 2021 — Miss USA 2021 title for Kentucky (Infobae)
- 2022 — Relationship with Williamson becomes public (Grazia Daily)
- July 2022 — Williamson captains England to the Euro 2022 title (England Football, the FA’s official site)
- Watch Smith’s journalism and media moves as her profile keeps growing (England Football)
- Williamson is back in England squads after the ACL injury that ruled her out of the 2023 World Cup (England Football)
- A confirmed relationship timeline would need a direct statement from the couple (England Football)
Eight labels, one pattern: Smith keeps stacking public roles — journalist, pageant winner, model, partner — while the private details stay thin.
| Label | Recorded detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Elle Smith |
| Birth date | June 20, 1998 |
| Birth place | Springfield, Ohio, USA |
| Education | University of Kentucky, graduated May 2020; studied broadcast journalism and political science |
| Profession | Journalist, model, former Miss USA |
| Pageant title | Miss USA 2021, representing Kentucky |
| Modeling representation | Wilhelmina Models, per lifestyle reporting; not confirmed by the agency |
| Partner | Leah Williamson, England and Arsenal footballer |
Who is Elle Smith’s partner?
The short answer is Leah Williamson, and it is one of the better-documented details in Smith’s public record. The longer answer runs through two careers that rarely share a headline: American pageantry and English football.
Who is Leah Williamson?
- Leah Williamson is an English professional footballer who plays for Arsenal WFC and the England women’s senior team, where her legacy number is 205 (England Football, the FA’s official site).
- Born 29 March 1997 in Milton Keynes, England, she made her senior debut on 8 June 2018 and captained the Lionesses to the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 title — a 2–1 win over Germany at Wembley that made her the first woman to lift a major trophy with England’s senior team (England Football).
Williamson’s football CV does more than explain who she is; it explains why the relationship became such a large story in the first place.
How did they meet?
- There is no confirmed meeting story. Neither Smith nor Williamson has publicly described when or how the relationship began.
- The public record starts in 2022, when coverage of the two as a couple first appeared (Grazia Daily).
- Most coverage of the relationship arrives alongside Williamson’s England matches, which is how the story reached football audiences in the first place.
Leah Williamson’s England record is fully documented — a legacy number, a birth date, a major trophy. Elle Smith’s relationship timeline, by comparison, is a year and very little else. That mismatch is the reason this story keeps getting retold.
Takeaway: The relationship is publicly visible but privately undocumented, and the missing details are exactly what search engines keep asking about.
What this means: the relationship is publicly visible but privately undocumented, and the missing details are exactly what search engines keep asking about.
Who is Ellen Smith?
This is the question that trips up spellers, voice search, and auto-correct — and it has a simple answer.
Is Ellen Smith a common misspelling of Elle Smith?
- The correct spelling of the Miss USA 2021 winner’s name is Elle Smith — two Ls and a single E.
- In pageant and celebrity coverage, “Ellen Smith” shows up as a spelling variant of the same search; no separate high-profile Ellen Smith is attached to the 2021 title.
- Search results for “Ellen Smith” in this context lead back to the same biography: a Kentucky titleholder, a University of Kentucky graduate, and Williamson’s partner.
The catch: one letter changes nothing about the person — but it changes everything about whether a search finds her.
What is Elle Smith’s ethnicity?
This is the question with the shortest honest answer: there is no public record of it.
What are her heritage details?
- Smith has not publicly disclosed her ethnicity, and no verified biography in the available record states one.
- She was born in Springfield, Ohio, a detail confirmed in the lifestyle coverage that first brought her relationship into the open (Grazia Daily, women’s lifestyle magazine).
- Entertainment coverage has reported that she served as vice president of the University of Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (Entertainment Daily, UK entertainment outlet).
- The same coverage describes an early role as an on-air reporter for a regional Kentucky television station (Entertainment Daily).
Involvement with a Black journalists’ association is a professional affiliation, not a heritage statement. Until Smith addresses her background directly, no amount of inference closes the gap.
Takeaway: A biography that fills the ethnicity gap with a guess presents guesswork as fact — the one thing the verified record does not support.
Why this matters: a biography that fills the ethnicity gap with a guess is presenting guesswork as fact — the one thing the verified record does not support.
Was Elle Smith Miss USA?
On this question the record is unambiguous.
When did she win?
- Elle Smith won the Miss USA 2021 title, representing Kentucky (Infobae).
- The win followed her May 2020 graduation from the University of Kentucky, where she studied broadcast journalism and political science (Infobae).
- She then represented the United States at Miss Universe 2021, where she reportedly finished in the top 10 (Grazia Daily).
Crowns get replaced every year; journalism careers compound. Smith’s degree is the asset that outlasts the title — and the one that keeps showing up in her bios.
The pattern: the pageant win is the most thoroughly documented fact in Smith’s file, and everything after it drifts further from the official record.
How long have Leah Williamson and Elle Smith been together?
The honest answer is a year, not a date: the relationship has been public since 2022.
- Grazia Daily’s coverage places Smith and Williamson together as a couple and dates the public story to 2022 (Grazia Daily).
- Neither of them has published an anniversary, a first-meeting story, or a precise start date.
- Williamson’s England profile during the Euro 2022 tournament explains why the relationship gained so much attention once it became public (England Football).
The trade-off: “how long” currently has a year for an answer, and the missing date is where most of the speculation lives.
Elle Smith and Leah Williamson: a combined timeline
A short record, but a clear one:
- — Leah Williamson born in Milton Keynes, England (England Football).
- — Elle Smith born in Springfield, Ohio (Grazia Daily<).
- — Williamson makes her England senior debut (England Football).
- — Smith graduates from the University of Kentucky (Infobae).
- — Smith crowned Miss USA 2021, representing Kentucky (Infobae).
- — Smith represents the US at Miss Universe 2021; reportedly finishes in the top 10 (Grazia Daily).
- — Smith’s relationship with Williamson becomes public (Grazia Daily).
- — Smith appears in the Jack Harlow Feat. Drake: Churchill Downs music video (Entertainment Daily).
- — Williamson captains England to the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 title (England Football).
- — Williamson misses the FIFA Women’s World Cup due to an ACL injury (England Football).
- — Williamson returns to England duty after her ACL injury (England Football).
- — Williamson earns her 50th England cap (England Football).
Why this matters: Smith’s public record is short and concentrated — a title in 2021, a relationship and a music-video credit in 2022 — while Williamson’s football record supplies the longest, most verifiable arc in this story.
What’s confirmed — and what’s not
Most online bios mix the two. Here is the clean split:
Confirmed facts
- Won Miss USA 2021, representing Kentucky (Infobae)
- Born June 20, 1998, in Springfield, Ohio (Grazia Daily)
- Graduated from the University of Kentucky in May 2020 (Infobae)
- In a public relationship with Leah Williamson since 2022 (Grazia Daily)
What’s unclear
- Ethnicity — not publicly disclosed
- Exact start date of the relationship
- Reported involvement in a Rick and Morty episode
- Early on-air reporting role at a Kentucky station — reported, not confirmed by the station (Entertainment Daily)
- Current modeling agency — reports name Wilhelmina Models, without agency confirmation (Grazia Daily)
The implication: the closer a detail sits to Smith’s private life, the thinner the verification gets — and the louder the search queries become.
What the sources say
Two sources anchor the parts of this story that go beyond the pageant record.
Infobae’s portrait of Smith pairs the personal story — a footballer and a Miss USA making a life together work — with the biography behind it: a 2020 University of Kentucky graduate who studied broadcast journalism and political science.
Infobae (Latin American news outlet)
Entertainment Daily’s profile adds the professional details that sit outside pageant coverage: a vice-presidency in the University of Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, and a reported early role as an on-air reporter for a regional Kentucky station.
Entertainment Daily (UK entertainment outlet)
The common thread: every source confirms the same short list — title, degree, relationship — and beyond that list, the record turns to reported detail.
The takeaway
Elle Smith won the pageant that put her in headlines, but the headline keeps changing: journalist, titleholder, partner of an England captain. Every one of those roles is verifiable in a different way, and the least documented one — the relationship — keeps generating the most questions. Until either woman addresses the timeline directly, the gap will keep producing recycled bios. For Elle Smith, the choice ahead is clear: let the journalism career that predates the crown keep defining her, or watch the headline roles — Miss USA and footballer’s partner — do the defining instead.
Frequently asked questions
When is Elle Smith’s birthday?
June 20, 1998. She was born in Springfield, Ohio.
Springfield, Ohio, as confirmed in lifestyle coverage of her relationship with Leah Williamson. She later attended the University of Kentucky. They are in a public relationship. Coverage of the couple began appearing in 2022, and Williamson’s profile as England captain explains the scale of the attention. Yes — she represented the United States at Miss Universe 2021 and reportedly finished in the top 10. Broadcast journalism, sometimes reported as television communications, and political science at the University of Kentucky. She graduated in May 2020. 5’10”, the figure listed across professional and biographical profiles.Where was Elle Smith born?
How is Elle Smith connected to Leah Williamson?
Did Elle Smith compete in Miss Universe?
What did Elle Smith study at university?
What is Elle Smith’s height?
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George Thompson is Senior Reporter at UrbanMixr.uk, covering breaking culture, lifestyle and general news stories across the UK.