Tyra Banks is suing going Netflix.
The 52-year-old TV personality filed a defamation lawsuit against the streaming service after her participation in the Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model docu-series received major backlash.
Tyra is accusing Netflix of defamation and editing her interviews to support a false narrative.
“Tyra Banks participated in the Netflix documentary series America’s Next Top Model (‘ANTM’) because she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show’s legacy—its successes and its shortcomings,” the lawsuit begins, per People. “There are aspects of the show for which Ms. Banks takes accountability and she wanted ANTM viewers to hear that from her directly.”
“Going into her interview, Ms. Banks did not limit the ANTM topics the interviewer could ask,” the lawsuit continues. During a three-and-a-half-hour interview, Ms. Banks answered questions about the show’s groundbreaking history, including criticism of decisions she would approach differently today.
“The Netflix series Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model (the ‘Netflix Series’) was sold to viewers as a ‘documentary series,’ “the lawsuit states. “Netflix called it ‘the definitive, must-watch chronicle of America’s Next Top Model.’ The genre matters. Viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts. Because they were promised a documentary, that is exactly how viewers interacted with the Netflix Series.”
Tyra claims that just 16 minutes of her lengthy interview was used in the docuseries, and that the clips were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.” She also claims that the accountability she took for some of the controversial moments in ANTM were edited out.
“Worse, the false narrative the producers constructed—through selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage—included that Ms. Banks 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,” the lawsuit claims. “That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication—one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions.”
In the docuseries, judge Miss J Alexander opened up about suffering a debilitating stroke in 2022, and revealed that Tyra hasn’t visited him yet.
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