Tyra Banks filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix on Saturday, June 13, accusing the platform of manipulating her participation in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the three-part docuseries that examines the history and controversies of the fashion reality show she created and produced for over a decade.
According to the lawsuit reviewed by People, the former supermodel questions that significant fragments of her three-and-a-half-hour interview were omitted, of which only 16 minutes were aired. Banks maintains that her statements were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative that bore no relation to what she actually expressed.”
The lawsuit accuses the producers of using “selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage” to convey the idea that “Ms. Banks knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant’s trauma for ratings, and then couldn’t even remember it when asked.”
We recommend reading: DR and its music stand out in new Netflix movie starring JLo
“That narrative about Mrs. Banks is a complete falsehood that Netflix broadcast to a global audience of millions of people,” the court document points out.
A docuseries that exposed the controversies of America’s Next Top Model
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, premiered on February 16, 2026, revisited the most controversial moments of the reality show, which aired between 2003 and 2018 on UPN, The CW, and VH1. The special included testimonies from Banks, executive producers Ken Mok and Jay Manuel, former judges Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker, as well as several former contestants.
Among the most shocking stories was that of Shandi Sullivan, who participated in the show’s second season in 2004 and reached the top 3 before a group trip to Italy.
Sullivan recounted that, after a day of casting and without having eaten, the contestants had dinner with local men who had helped transport them during filming. According to her testimony, she consumed two bottles of wine and then partially lost consciousness. For years, the show presented Shandi Sullivan’s incident as a story of infidelity rather than an alleged sexual assault. (Netflix)
“I only remember small details. He threw me into the shower and then I was just sitting in the shower. And then we were in bed. I was unconscious for a long time. I didn’t even feel the sex, I just knew it was happening. And then I passed out,” she recalled.
The former contestant stated that, in that state, she could not give consent and questioned why the show’s team did not intervene. However, when the episode originally aired, the production presented the event as a story of infidelity because Sullivan was in a romantic relationship with her then-boyfriend.
The program subsequently showed the call the contestant made to her partner to tell them what happened, a scene that became one of the most remembered moments in the history of America’s Next Top Model.
In the Netflix documentary, Banks’ response was notably evasive “It’s a little hard for me to talk about the production because that’s not my territory”. Sullivan questioned why the production team did not intervene during the situation she described in the docuseries.(Netflix)
The lawsuit filed by the former host focuses on this episode and maintains that she was never informed by the documentary’s producers about Sullivan’s statements prior to her interview.
“The defendants edited the Netflix series to make it appear that Ms. Banks knew she was being asked about a sexual assault and was deliberately trying to evade the subject,” the lawsuit states.
More Read
“Ms. Banks wishes someone involved in the Netflix series had told her what Ms. Sullivan shared with them. But they deliberately chose not to,” the document adds.
You can also read:Platforms like Netflix, YouTube and Airbnb would pay 18% ITBIS in the country
The lawsuit also states that “Ms. Banks respects Ms. Sullivan’s perspective and the courage it takes for her and others to come forward.” The creator of America’s Next Top Model is seeking compensation for economic damages and harm to her reputation.
The former reality show host is seeking compensation for the loss of future business opportunities, loss of business income, and other economic damages to be determined during the trial.
Furthermore, Banks claims that the docuseries caused “significant damage to the personal brand she has worked for decades to build and maintain around the world”. As an example, she maintains that the online ratings for her ice cream business in Sydney, SMiZE & DREAM, decreased after the documentary’s premiere.
Netflix has not made any public comments regarding the lawsuit.
