ANTM Stars Fire Back: Tyra Banks Sued Netflix—Now Netflix's Editing Under Fire

The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Tyra Banks, the former host and executive force behind America’s Next Top Model, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix over the recent Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model docuseries—claiming she was unfairly edited and misrepresented. The problem? Former contestants are calling her out for hypocrisy on a spectacular scale.

Jeana Turner, who appeared on season 24, didn’t mince words in an exclusive statement to Us Weekly on Monday, June 15. She called the lawsuit a“selfish, money-hungry thing”and pointed out the glaring contradiction at the heart of Banks’legal action.“It’s also extremely ironic of her to be suing them for defamation when that is what all of the girls who have been speaking out about America’s Next Top Model have been trying to point out,”Turner, 32, explained. For years, contestants have claimed they were defamed, their lives disrupted, and their careers damaged—yet many felt silenced by ironclad contracts and legal restrictions that made it nearly impossible to fight back.

Turner went further, calling out what she sees as a textbook power imbalance. When contestants raised concerns about editing and misrepresentation on the show, they had little recourse. Now that Banks herself faces similar accusations, she has the resources and platform to sue.“What I find troubling is the apparent double standard,”Turner said.“Contestants and participants associated with the fair ties were often bound by contacts and legal restrictions that made it difficult or impossible to pursue claims of misrepresentation.”Banks’legal move, from this perspective, looks less like justice and more like a reminder of who holds the real power.

The Netflix docuseries, which premiered in February, gave voice to former competitors who claimed they faced discrimination, sexual assault, and other serious harms during their time on the show. Banks participated in a three-and-a-half-hour interview, and according to court documents obtained by People, her lawyers claim Netflix edited that footage to support a false narrative that misrepresented her accountability.

But Turner—and ANTM’s first-ever winner, Adrianne Curry—see something else entirely. Curry, 43, shared her own blunt take on Instagram on Sunday, June 14:“I read that Tyra Banks is suing Netflix because she didn’t like being edited…Biiiiiiiiiiiitch, for real girl? Like?”She captioned it:“Trya doesn’t like being‘edited.’Lol. Welcome to the party, pal.”

Beyond the schadenfreude, Turner is channeling her experience into something constructive. She’s teaming up with other reality stars to create legal protections for future contestants, many of whom sign away their image and likeness at just 18 years old without proper counsel.“Our main focus is to really just put legal protections in place for future reality stars, because there aren’t many,”she said. That’s a conversation worth having—and it’s one Banks’lawsuit has accidentally brought into sharper focus.