Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images, UPN/Youtube
Tyra Banks and her torture-slash-modeling-competition show, America’s Next Top Model, are back in the spotlight this week and attempting to take some accountability in Netflix’s docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. In the series’ third episode, Banks addressed one of the most infamous — and widely memed — moments on the show: The time she lashed out at season-four contestant Tiffany Richardson after Richardson was eliminated in 2005.
In the docuseries, Banks described her outburst as a “very tough” moment. “I went too far – I lost it,” she said. “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 of 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.”
Other judges suggested Banks’s comments were actually far worse than what made it to air. The show’s former creative director, Jay Manuel, said “a lot more” was said by Banks, some of which he said was “really not well intentioned.” “I’ll probably never repeat the lines that were said in that room that day,” Manuel said, recalling that production staff “literally just took Tyra off set” afterward. Another former judge, Nolé Marin, described the incident as “very scary.” “All I know is the next week we had all the lawyers on set,” Marin said.
Banks’s comments were the closest she has come to apologizing in the 20 years since the incident first aired, but it doesn’t sound like Richardson is ready to forgive her. In an Instagram post after the episode aired, Richardson called Banks a “bully,” per “Page Six.” “You know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera,” she reportedly wrote, claiming Banks “treated me like shit and said the nastiest things about me and my son.” In the post, which has since been deleted, Richardson also claimed the viral scene was “edited” to make it appear like Banks was yelling because she “cared” about her, but said “that is not how the argument went.”
This isn’t the first time Richardson has spoken about being berated on the show. Back in 2017, Richardson told BuzzFeed News that Banks’s harsh words to her were “1,000 times worse” than viewers saw on TV, claiming Banks told her, “You can go back to your house and sleep on your mattress on the floor with your baby.”
The Cut has reached out to Richardson and Banks for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
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