Tyra Banks has admitted that she "went too far" after shouting at a contestant on America's Next Top Model.
The American model revealed this as she revisits the reality show in a new Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, having spent more than 30 years as the face of the controversial reality show. The show sees aspiring models compete for a chance to have a career in the modelling industry.
Netflix released this documentary this week, where judges, producers and previous contestants revisit the show, which ended eight years earlier.
In the show, Banks was shown a video of herself shouting at model, Tiffany Richardson during season four. Footage of this incident went viral across platforms including TikTok.
Fashion photographer, Nigel Barker said of the incident: "Tyra really scared all of us. We literally jumped out of our seats".
Speaking about this spat, Tyra Banks admitted that she was in the wrong.
"I went too far. I lost it. It was probably bigger than her", she said. "It was family, friends, society, black girls, all the challenges we have. So many people saying 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".
Tyra Banks is also shown to be putting contestants under pressure to undergo dental procedures, and encouraging them to adopt a different race for a photoshoot, where the contestants white contestants undergoing 'blackface' as the models were asked to dress up as different races.
On this, Evans said: "I didn’t think it was controversial, I was in my own little bubble in my own little head".
"This was my little way of showing the world that brown and black is beautiful. But we put it out there and the world was like, ‘are you crazy, have you lost your mind?'.
Elsewhere, Banks is spotted pressuring Dani Evans to have a dental procedure to fix a gap in her teeth, with Evans claiming that that Banks had implied that she would be thrown out of the show if she did not.
"I’ve actually apologised for the issue with Dani and what happened. That was between a rock and a hard place for me, because there were agents that would tell me, 'she will not work with those teeth, it’s just not going to happen’, Banks said.
"I could’ve been quiet and just let them handle it – but hindsight is 20/20 for all of us. It just so happens that a lot of the things that are 20/20 for me happened in front of the world".
Banks also recalled telling co stars, Barker, Jay Manuel and J Alexander that they had been let go by the show in 2013 after almost a decade following a network switch up.
The model called it "the hardest news I ever had to deliver in my existence", and said she "cried myself to sleep" after telling them they were being axed from the show.
Banks went on to say that she appreciates the criticism the show has garnered, and said: "I thank you for that. That is the only way you change, that is the only way you get better – by somebody calling you out on your sh*t. It is important".
America's Next Top Model was cancelled following a decline in viewership in 2018.
Banks has also hosted a number of shows including Dancing With The Stars and America’s Got Talent.
Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model is available to stream on Netflix.
