Tyra Banks is putting Netflix under the microscope.
The former America’s Next Top Model host filed a defamation lawsuit Saturday, alleging that the streamer heavily manipulated her appearance in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the recent documentary series revisiting the hit competition show’s legacy and many of its long-running controversies.
The three-part documentary explores both ANTM‘s cultural impact and the criticism that has followed it over the years, including allegations from former contestants involving an on-set sexual assault, cosmetic surgery pressure and the show’s infamous blackface photo shoot.
Banks participated in the project, saying she wanted to have an honest conversation about the franchise’s highs and lows. But according to the lawsuit, her interview was ultimately “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”
“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 states. “That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication — one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions.”
Netflix has thus far declined to comment.
According to the complaint, Banks sat for a 3 1/2-hour interview and placed no restrictions on the subjects that could be discussed because she believed audiences deserved a candid look back at the show’s complicated history. The lawsuit says only 16 minutes of that conversation appeared in the finished series.
Banks further alleges that producers edited the interview to make it seem as though she was responding to claims from former contestant Shandi Sullivan, who says in the documentary that she was sexually assaulted during production of the show’s second season.
“Defendants edited the Netflix Series to make it appear that Ms. Banks knew she was being asked about a sexual assault and was intentionally trying to evade the topic,” the lawsuit states. “Ms. Banks respects Ms. Sullivan’s perspective and the courage it takes for Ms. Sullivan and others to speak up.”
“Ms. Banks wishes somebody involved with the Netflix Series would have told her what Ms. Sullivan shared with them,” the suit continues. “But they deliberately chose not to.”
Banks is seeking damages for “loss of future business opportunities, loss of business income, other compounding losses as will be shown at trial,” though the filing does not list a specific amount.
The lawsuit also claims the documentary has caused “significant harm and damage to the personal brand she has worked for decades to build and maintain throughout the world,” alleging that online ratings for her Sydney-based ice cream company, SMiZE & DREAM, have dropped since the series premiered.
America’s Next Top Model debuted in 2003 and went on to air for 24 seasons across UPN, The CW and VH1 before ending in 2018. Notably, Banks also said in the documentary that she would be open to producing a 25th season, though whether the franchise will ever return remains an open question.
“Every other conversation about ANTM’s legacy — including the candid reflection Ms. Banks came prepared to have — is now drowned out by an accusation she was never given the chance to answer,” the suit states.