Tiffany Richardson broke her silence about Netflix’s tell-all America’s Next Top Model docuseries — and made it very clear where she currently stands with Tyra Banks.
Netflix released Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Monday, February 16, which featured Banks, 52, addressing the infamous moment she yelled at Richardson on the show. Richardson, for her part, spoke out about how she was eliminated by Banks from cycle 4.
“Hold up @tyrabanks let’s keep it cute .. you are 1 lying ass [tired] ass bitch.. you know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera, YOU WAS A BULLY!!! You treated me like s*** and said the nastiest things about me and my son,” Richardson claimed. “That is not how the argument went but YALL EDITED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU CARED.”
She continued: “F*** YOU @tyrabanks I BET YOU WONT SIT DOWN WITH ME FACE TO FACE AND TALK ABOUT IT!!! Also F*** MY FAMILY TOO ©99090 yall don’t ever defend me, I got more money and helping more people than all or many of the top models but that’s the update yall give es damn shame.. it’s giving yall still hating on lil black ass me.. @tyrabanks hoe just let it go, ITS BEEN OVER 20 years.”
Tyra Banks Breaks Silence on America’s Next Top Model’s Offensive Challenges
In the three-part Netflix special, Banks admitted that how she spoke to Richardson is something she still regrets.
“Tiffany, that girl, that girl was my heart. She didn’t make it the first year because she got into a fight in a bar. But we mentored her off camera and said, ‘We feel like this show is gonna be amazing for you, let’s get you the help you need,’” Banks said. “When I see this beautiful girl who made some mistakes in the season before and didn’t make it and then we worked with her to get her here, and then to see her kind of giving up.”
Jay Manuel, who was a creative director on the show, called it the “most difficult moment on set I had ever experienced.” Manuel claimed that Banks made comments that didn’t air but were “not well-intentioned,” adding, “I will probably never repeat the lines that were actually said in the room that day.”
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Richardson confirmed Manuel’s version of events in a 2016 interview with BuzzFeed when she called Banks’ comments “1,000 times worse” than what was seen on TV — including a comment about her child that “stayed in the back of my mind.”
Banks, for her part, admitted in the docuseries that she “went too far” while addressing the “tough” moment.
“You know, I lost it. It was probably bigger than her. It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges that we have,” she added. “So many people saying that we’re not good enough. I think all 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.”
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is currently streaming on Netflix.
