Several former America’s Next Top Model contestants are criticizing Tyra Banks after she filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, arguing that her complaint highlights what they see as a striking double standard.
Banks sued over Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, a docuseries that premiered on Netflix in February. According to legal papers filed Saturday in federal court in Los Angeles, she alleges the streamer used only about 16 minutes from a roughly three-and-a-half-hour interview she gave on April 18, 2025, and edited the material in a way that cast her unfairly.
In the complaint, Banks’ attorneys say Netflix manipulated the footage “to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”
That argument has drawn sharp reaction from some alumni of the long-running reality franchise, who say contestants did not always have the same ability to challenge how they were depicted on television.
Jeana Turner, who competed on the show’s 24th season in 2018, told the Daily Mail on Sunday that she found the situation “troubling,” pointing to what she described as an “apparent double standard.” Turner said Banks maintained tight control over how people connected to the series were presented in the final broadcast.
“Contestants and participants associated with the franchise were often bound by contracts and legal restrictions that made it difficult, or impossible to pursue claims of misrepresentation or challenge how they were portrayed,” Turner said.
A number of America’s Next Top Model alums are calling out Tyra Banks for hypocrisy after she sued Netflix for defamation over the docuseries, claiming footage of an interview she gave was edited to portray her in an unflattering light
Model Jeana Turner, who appeared on the show’s 24th season in 2018, told the Daily Mail Sunday she found ‘troubling’ an ‘apparent double standard’ from Banks, who she said strictly controlled how people on the show were presented in broadcasts
Turner said that ‘if editing and production manipulation are serious enough concerns to warrant a lawsuit when directed at Tyra, then they were serious concerns when contestants raised them as well.’
Turner said the underlying inequity issues were the reason ‘many people view this situation as an example of an unequal power structure rather than simply a dispute over a documentary.’
Adrianne Curry, who won the show’s first cycle in 2003, made clear she felt similarly in an Instagram post early Sunday.
‘I read that Tyra Banks is suing Netflix because she didn’t like being “edited” – b****, for real girl?’
Curry in the caption of the post, wrote ‘Tyra doesn’t like being “edited”. Lol,’ quoting Bruce Willis’ Die Hard character in saying, ‘Welcome to the party, pal.’
Curry also questioned the validity of the motives behind the suit, saying they reeked of a potential headline grab from either the streamer or Banks.
‘I wonder if its a publicity stunt from Netflix to get more viewers…or from her…because she has something new coming,’ she wrote.
America’s Next Top Model: All Stars winner Lisa D’Amato said on Instagram Stories that she felt Banks came off better in the Netflix docuseries than many of the contestants on her show did.
‘She says it’s defamation of character, and she was manipulated – that’s weird,’ D’Amato said. ‘I think that she got a really nice edit compared to what she did to so many of us.’
ANTM: All Stars winner Lisa D’Amato said on Instagram Stories that she felt Banks came off better in the Netflix docuseries than many of the contestants on her show did
Adrianne Curry, who won the show’s first cycle in 2003, said she was surprised by the suit
Curry also questioned the validity of the motives behind the suit, saying they reeked of a potential headline grab from either the streamer or Banks
Banks requested damages in the suit which she filed against the streaming service, as well as EverWonder Studio, and directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy.
In her legal filing, attorneys for Banks said that the creator and host of the controversial reality series took ‘accountability’ for parts of the series that have not aged well, but her comments ‘ended up on the cutting room floor.’
‘It was there, but viewers were never given the opportunity to see it.’
Banks’ legal team said Netflix engaged in ‘selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage’ to present a misleading narrative surrounding the star.
Lawyers for Banks said in her complaint that she hadn’t been shown the special until the day before it began streaming; wasn’t asked follow-up questions on issues raised in the show; and not given a chance to address critics featured in the special.
‘They kept her in the dark because they did not want her to know,’ lawyers for Banks said in the complaint.
Banks alleged in the complaint that she was not aware certain personalities were involved in the docuseries in the first place, as she said that ‘it would have raised a red flag’ to the narrative filmmakers were looking to shape.
‘Had Ms. Banks known these individuals were so deeply involved in the formulation of the Netflix Series, also serving as consultants shaping the editorial direction, and that she had been excluded from such a role … she would have known she was being set up,’ her lawyers said. ‘She would not have participated.’
Banks’ lawyers said that in the aftermath of the docuseries, the star ‘has suffered significant harm and damage to the personal brand she has worked for decades to build and maintain throughout the world.’
