\u201cAnd it was really big. It still is really big. It was the show that started the shows\u2026everything now is watered down and a bit dull. But back then it was exciting and new.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat there and I just went, \u2018Pull yourself together. This is not hard to do. This is your job\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
NZ’s Next Top Model judging panel, Chris Sisarich, Sara Tetro and Colin Mathura-Jefree.<\/p>\n
And so, as the swarm of young women lined themselves up in front of him, the execs, the bible holders and the cameras, Mathura-Jeffree got a grip of his arms, legs, glorious hair and practically perfect face. Everything, that is, but his mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first girl walked [down the catwalk] and I went, \u2018Don\u2019t hobble like a cripple\u2019.\u201d He both winces and flashes a smile as wide as a Cheshire cat\u2019s remembering the moment.<\/p>\n
My God man, she had lost her shoe! What was she meant to do? <\/p>\n
\u201cPick it up. Work it out\u2026I walked on a runway once and it disconnected from the stage and rolled into the audience. Then the audience put their feet up and kicked it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathura-Jeffree is that kind of person. The \u201cgot a box of lemons? Let\u2019s make gin and tonics\u201d kind. <\/p>\n
The only people he doesn\u2019t like are stupid ones. He apologises to others who hate him for being \u201cso ridiculously photogenic\u201d (because he doesn\u2019t even think he\u2019s, you know, good looking). He feels privileged to be invited to parties, but sometimes wonders if he\u2019s asked because \u201cof being really exotic\u201d. As a model – a real, top one who worked for Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier – he was constantly told \u201cyour nose is too big, you\u2019re too black, we don\u2019t want you, we\u2019ll shave all your body hair\u201d. But that made him tough as nails, steely. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Models] don\u2019t miss a beat. We let people lie to us. We can read a lie. Why? Because I\u2019m from an industry built on illusion… I just let people think they can get away with it. And I lock it, I load it [in my memory].\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, those memories are being unloaded. The world is reliving – and re-evaluating – the impact of America\u2019s Next Top Model. The early noughties reality show hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks for 15 years is the subject of a Netflix documentary investigating its darkest moments. <\/p>\n
Highlights (lowlights?) include models being asked to switch ethnicities for a photo shoot and another where gun violence was glamourised. There are clips of offensive comments made about contestants\u2019 appearance and size and the cosmetic lengths they were forced to undergo to remain on the show, as well as mental health struggles, bullying and inappropriate behaviour by male models. <\/p>\n
Mathura-Jeffree sent a series of WhatsApp messages in real time as he watched the series. The first sums it up: \u201cthe unreality of reality\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Modelling] throughout the history of the modern-day commercial landscape was always based on the capacity to sell to a gender, age or community and ANTM clearly abandoned that for ratings,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He had seen the production from the inside too, as a guest judge when the show visited New Zealand in 2010. Producer Jenny Goosby (still a good friend) had watched him on our local version and cast him \u201cbecause of how good I was and how neutral I was \u2026 and funny\u201d. It didn\u2019t take long to understand how manufactured the drama was. <\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a heavy focus on personality\u2019. There are maybe three cool models and the rest are just noise. And chaos and drama and TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was entirely different to our show\u2026They had money and we were building the most magnificent show – as Kiwis do – on the smell of an oily rag and made it look lush,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Did that rag make New Zealand\u2019s version as problematic as the Americans? Worse? Better? Mathura-Jeffree pauses. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think hindsight\u2019s a great thing,\u201d he says eventually. \u201cI\u2019m sure we made some faux pas along the way. But Kiwis are powerful. They\u2019re tough. That\u2019s no excuse to treat someone in a mediocre way, but also, this is a television show. So besides trying to find an actual next top model, we\u2019re looking for entertainment. And boy, were they entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembers the contestant who had activated charcoal delivered to the model share house so \u201cher poo didn\u2019t smell\u201d and another joyfully tearful after seeing a dolphin in Lake Wakatipu (\u201cThere are no dolphins in that lake\u201d). <\/p>\n
None of this is said as callously as it might read. He stills feels a sense of protection over those young women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I listen to people talk about our industry like it\u2019s frivolous or full of narcissists, they have no idea about the love, the care.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go back to models I knew back in the day, stylists, hairdressers. They just said I was formidably protective. I\u2019m not weak. And I\u2019m not scared of people. And I\u2019m not scared of bullies, especially bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not weak. And I\u2019m not scared of people. And I\u2019m not scared of bullies, especially bullies.\u201d Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Now 53, he was just 19 when, on his first day at university in Auckland, he was told he could be a model. He wanted to be a scientist – a palaeontologist, really – and he\u2019s still obsessed with dinosaurs and history. <\/p>\n
That chance encounter (and his glorious face) took him around the world, on to catwalks, magazine covers and eventually TV screens. A role in Xena was first. Later he hosted baking shows and competed on dancing shows. Some of it he loved, some he hated. But Top Model was different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot out of it. That show put me into the mainstream,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd one [thing] leads to the next, leads to the next and true doors open. And if a door doesn\u2019t open, it\u2019s not meant for me. Or [you] kick it down. Climb through the window, do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beaming into the homes of middle New Zealand every week brought a fame that was quick and at times, too much. Being mobbed by teenage girls at Balmoral KFC? Fun. Being the verbal punching bag for radio shockjocks? No thanks. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was, all of a sudden, thrust into being popular. I was also being punished. People were saying things about me that were nasty, for pure entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathura-Jeffree says starring in New Zealand’s Next Top Model put him into the mainstream. <\/p>\n
For almost 20 years, Colin Mathura-Jeffree\u2019s been a mainstay of society and gossip pages, a \u201cman-about-town\u201d sipping champagne and nibbling free canapes. <\/p>\n
That lifestyle wasn\u2019t always his choice. \u201cMediaWorks people, agents, managers, all of it\u201d were pushing him to be more places, do more charity gigs, sign on to more jobs. He was working every single day and it was exhausting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt all this chaos around me. People would tell me, \u2018You have to do it or you\u2019re the bad guy\u2019…\u2018Do you want to work in New Zealand or do you want your career to end?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI challenge anyone to say I was trouble, because I always tried to get the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut people get very predatory, they just want to use you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a chance meeting with ANTM host Tyra Banks away from filming that gave him perspective. When he told her how much he was working, she told him enough was enough: if he dropped dead from exhaustion, the people pulling the strings would replace him in a second. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one cares. Care for yourself, Colin,\u201d he remembers her saying.<\/p>\n
Tyra Banks: host of America’s Next Top Model and giver of life advice. Photo \/ Richard Robinson<\/p>\n
Today, Mathura-Jeffree is as busy as he wants to be. He hosts events (like a risqu\u00e9 New Year\u2019s party at an Auckland adult club) and still dabbles in reality TV (if you haven\u2019t watched him on Traitors NZ, that\u2019s something for you to do this afternoon). Fans can get a personalised birthday message or pep talk for $80 a pop on celebrity video platform Cameo. He\u2019s also working on strengthening trade relationships between New Zealand companies and India. He has people clambering for his expertise and connections. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a dream of mine since my early career success as an Anglo Indian, New Zealand-born model who lived the high life through the 90s in India, to help NZ products enter the massive Indian marketplace,\u201d he told the Herald\u2019s Society Insider earlier this year. <\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not travelling, Mathura-Jeffree lives alone in Mt Albert, the Auckland suburb he grew up in. And every day, he wakes at 4am to \u201clook at the stars, drink water and appreciate being alive\u201d.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s never considered getting married, and is single \u201cby choice and with lots of lovers\u2026I\u2019m the Whore of Babylon\u201d. He screeches with laughter before yelling \u201cit\u2019s a lie, it\u2019s a lie\u201d. He has had \u201creal love\u201d in his life, specifically \u201ca really great relationship\u201d with a \u201cbrilliant\u201d man he is no longer with. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I swing. I\u2019m, you know, quite happily with anyone. And I\u2019ve been like that forever. I never had to come out to my parents. I was just allowed [to be]. I think that came out of the fact that mum was Indian, dad British. There was no declaration or anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mathura-Jeffree says he never had to declare his sexuality. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
His father Clifford died in the late 90s. His mother, Rosalie, died just before Covid struck. \u201cMy mum was brilliant, protective, intelligent, caring, hilarious,\u201d he says softly. <\/p>\n
She was the one who told him it was in his DNA to never step back from a fight, and to always step towards it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a good guy but I\u2019m not a walkover and if I discover you\u2019ve done something that is off, and some stupid idiot has believed you, I will open the dams and drown you,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
Yes, he promises he will eventually write a book. Yes, that extensive battle list will surely be in there. It just might need to be a work of fiction-inspired-by-truth, rather than a tell-all memoir. He doesn\u2019t care about being blacklisted, but getting sued is a whole other story. If there\u2019s one thing Mathura-Jeffree is not, it\u2019s a fool. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not into dismantling people\u2019s lives. And I\u2019m privy to some secrets,\u201d he says with a wiggle of his eyebrows. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hold receipts and I am not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridget Jones joined the New Zealand Herald in 2025. She has been a lifestyle and entertainment journalist and editor for more than 15 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd it was really big. It still is really big. It was the show that started the shows\u2026everything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28174,95,8172,6743,31875,8486,8615,4187,156,39275,27892,2176,138262,1432,13617,111,139,1536,69,90,24994,6642,3010,437,2963],"class_list":["post-307066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-americas","tag-and","tag-backlash","tag-became","tag-bridget","tag-colin","tag-come","tag-cost","tag-entertainment","tag-fame","tag-household","tag-jones","tag-mathurajeffree","tag-model","tag-name","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-sudden","tag-tells","tag-top","tag-tv","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}