Tyra Banks has been accused of “lying” in Netflix’s bombshell new documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, with an ex-contestant saying the former supermodel was nothing but a “bully” on the show.
The three-part docu-series looks back on the controversies and impactful moments from the iconic show, which was created and hosted by Banks and followed hopefuls trying to score a coveted modelling contract.
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Among the ANTM moments revisited in the doco is the infamous scene where Banks screamed at contestant Tiffany Richardson for seemingly not taking the competition seriously.
“I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this. When my mother yelled at me like this, it’s because she loves me,” Banks yelled in the 2005 episode.
“I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you.”
The shock blow-up left Banks’ fellow judges with their jaws on the floor while a clip of the moment quickly went viral on social media.
In the new doco, Banks reflected on the incident while explaining why she unleashed on Richardson, who was just 22 at the time.
Speaking on camera, Banks, now 52, said she was simply disappointed that Richardson was not taking the opportunity that not many Black people are given.
“I went too far. You know, I lost it,” Banks said on the doco. “It was probably bigger than her. It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges that we have. So many people saying that we’re not good enough. I think all that was in that moment.”
“That’s some Black-girl stuff that goes real deep inside of me, but I knew I went too far.”
But Banks’ confessional did not cut it for Richardson, who took to Instagram this week to label Bank’s narrative a lie.
“Hold up @tyrabanks let’s keep it cute … you are 1 lying a** b***h … you know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera, YOU WAS A BULLY!!!” Richardson wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post.
“You treated me like s*** and said the nastiest things about me and my son. That is not how the argument went but YALL EDITED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU CARED.”
She added, “F**K YOU @tyrabanks I BET YOU WONT SIT DOWN WITH ME FACE TO FACE AND TALK ABOUT IT!!!”
Creative director and then-judge Jay Manuel also appeared on the doco, sharing his insights into the heated moment of which some parts apparently did not make it on screens.
“It was definitely the most difficult moment on set I’ve ever experienced. When they were done shooting, production staff literally just took Tyra off set,” Manuel said on camera.
“There was a lot more that was really said, and some of the things that were said were really not well-intentioned. I’ll probably never repeat the lines that were actually said in that room that day.”
Indeed, time does not heal all wounds with some comments allegedly made by Banks still cutting deep for Richardson, who stepped away from modelling after she was eliminated from the show.
In a 2017 interview with BuzzFeed, she said that Banks told her: “You can go back to your house and sleep on your mattress on the floor with your baby,” in front of the other judges, contestants and crew members.
Richardson claimed that Banks said other things that had also been edited out, but that particular comment “stayed in the back of [her] mind”.
Tragically, Richardson’s son Chadrick Coats was shot and killed at a gaming store in Florida in 2023 in a robbery gone wrong. He was just 21 years old.
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