The “real” Tyra Banks is missing from Netflix’s new documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, according to former friend and judge Jay Manuel.
“We’re watching Tyra on prepared TV. I know a real woman. I know her struggles. I know what she’s fought through in this industry,” Manuel told Sherri Shepherd on the upcoming episode of “Shelly” airing Tuesday, Feb. 24.
Manuel and fellow judges Nigel Barker and Miss J. Alexander appear in the documentary, along with several of the model contestants, reflecting on the reality show’s complicated legacy.
The three judges appeared together on “Shelly,” the trio’s first sit-down interview since the documentary premiered on Monday.
The documents reveal an estrangement between Banks, a supermodel turned Smith’s & Dream ice cream entrepreneur, and the trio, who were once close friends.
In Manuel’s case, their relationship changed after he tried to leave the show in 2007, and Manuel responded in an email saying she was “disappointed.”
Their off-camera communication stopped, and Manuel told Shepard that Banks had completely shut him out. (Manuel appeared on the show from its first year in 2003 and ultimately stayed on after Cycle 18 in 2012, but Barker and Alexander also left the show.)
“We had a really tense relationship because she wouldn’t talk to me when the cameras weren’t rolling, and that still really hurts,” he said.
Asked about their relationship in the documentary, Banks refused to talk about their rift, only saying that she should give him a ring. Manuel said he hasn’t received a call yet and isn’t waiting by the phone.
Banks teased “ANTM” cycle 25 at the end of the doc, but when Shepard asked if he would return to the trio, Manuel replied, “If you’re serious…I don’t think you’ll get that call.”
Alexander responded by giving him his iconic, meme-worthy look.
Alexander is recovering from a stroke in 2022, and documents reveal Banks did not visit him while he was in the hospital. “She sent me an email saying she wanted to come see me,” he said.
What about Mr. Barker?
“Sometimes it’s best to leave things the way they are… Millions and billions of people watched ‘America’s Next Top Model’ and really enjoyed it… Take the good, the bad, the ugly and remember the positive. Be kind to everyone,” he said.
