Tyra Banks Sues Netflix Over Editing. Her Former Contestants Fire Back

There’s a particular kind of irony unfolding in the *America’s Next Top Model* universe right now, and several former contestants are here to point it out—loudly.

On June 13, Tyra Banks filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix over the three-part docuseries *Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model*, which premiered on February 16. Banks claims that only 16 minutes of her three-and-a-half hour interview made it into the documentary, and that those minutes were“stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”She’s arguing that producers used“selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage”to paint her in a negative light—specifically insinuating that she“knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant’s trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked.”

Here’s where it gets spicy: the very contestants she’s suing Netflix over are now pointing out that this is exactly what they’ve been accusing her of doing to *them* for years.

Adrianne Curry, the season 1 winner, posted a video on Instagram on June 14 with barely contained laughter.“I read that Tyra Banks is suing Netflix because she didn’t like being edited,”she said, before adding in the caption,“Trya doesn’t like being‘edited.’Lol. Welcome to the party, pal.”Season 17 contestant Angelea Preston was more direct in her response to *Entertainment Weekly* on June 14, simply stating in reference to Banks’complaints about“surgical manipulation”and“selective editing”:“Now you know how we feel. It’s kind of like a taste of your own medicine, in a way.”Preston notably filed her own lawsuit against *ANTM* back in 2014 seeking $3 million—a case she later dropped.

Season 24 runner-up Jeana Turner took a slightly different angle when speaking exclusively to *Us Weekly* on June 15, calling the lawsuit“selfish”and“money-hungry.”But her real point was sharper:“For years, former contestants have shared their experiences and concerns, and many of them felt dismissed.”She noted the fundamental contradiction:“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—that we have been defamed, our lives were affected, our careers were affected—ultimately, it was defamation.”

The documentary itself has clearly touched a nerve. Banks agreed to participate because she believed viewers deserved“a candid conversation about the show’s legacy, including its successes and its shortcomings,”and according to her lawsuit filing, she even wanted to take accountability for certain aspects of the 24-season run. Instead, she feels her words were weaponized against her. But from where the contestants sit, that’s the story of *their* experience with the show itself—and they’re not letting this moment pass without reminding everyone of that disconnect.