Tyra Banks sues filmmakers behind “ANTM ”documentary alleging defamation
Tyra Banks sues filmmakers behind “ANTM ”documentary alleging defamation
Wesley StenzelSat, June 13, 2026 at 5:19 PM UTC
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Tyra Banks in San Francisco on Feb. 6Credit: Jeff Schear/GettyKey points -
Tyra Banks filed a complaint accusing the documentary filmmakers behind Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model of defamation.
The reality star also accused the docuseries' production company of breach of contract, and accused Netflix of false endorsement.
Banks claimed that she had no idea that contestant Shandi Sullivan viewed a controversial Milan encounter as a sexual assault.
Tyra Banks is suing documentary filmmakers and Netflix over the buzzy America's Next Top Model docuseries.
On Saturday, the supermodel filed a complaint, which has been reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, accusing the creators of Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model of crafting a "false narrative" about her via "selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage."
Banks named directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan and the production company EverWonder Studio as defendants in the complaint. She accused Loushy, Sivan, and EverWonder of false light and two counts of defamation by implication. Banks also accused EverWonder of breach of contract.
Netflix and its music division, Netflix Music, are each only listed as defendants for one of Banks' claims: her accusation of false endorsement, which also lists EverWonder as a defendant and stems from her allegation that the streamer used an image of her to promote the Reality Check soundtrack without her consent.
Miss J. Alexander and Tyra Banks on 'America's Next Top Model'Credit: Michael Yarish/CBS Photo Archive/Getty
Banks is seeking a variety of damages in amounts to be proven at trial, as well as an injunction stopping Netflix from using her likeness on the soundtrack album cover.
EW has reached out to representatives for Netflix, Loushy, Sivan, and EverWonder for comment.
In the complaint, Banks' attorneys claim that she provided 3.5 hours of interview material, but only 16 minutes were actually used — and those 16 minutes were "stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed." The attorneys claim that Banks took "accountability" for "decisions she would approach differently today," but that material "ended up on the cutting room floor" by the time the show was released.
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"The producers breached the no-defamation clause and the no-word-replacement clause — both material obligations of the Rights Agreement — before and at the time the Netflix Series was released," the complaint alleges. "Those breaches were not minor or technical. They go to the heart of the bargain: Ms. Banks agreed to participate and to waive claims in exchange for, among other things, the assurance that her material would not be used to defame her or to alter the meaning of her words."
The complaint alleges that Reality Check intentionally misrepresented Banks' reaction to contestant Shandi Sullivan's allegations about her sexual encounter in Milan. (Sullivan had sex with a local man and was subsequently filmed confessing the encounter in a tense phone call with her boyfriend, which ANTM framed as a salacious scandal and Reality Check framed as an assault.)
Tyra Banks on 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model'Credit: Netflix
Banks' complaint claims that she had no idea that Sullivan remembers the incident as a sexual assault, and that she "was not told during her interview" with Reality Check. It also alleges that the documentary filmmakers edited Banks' reaction when asked about the Sullivan incident to make it appear as though Banks "cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show." The complaint claims that in reality, Banks told the interviewers, "I do remember her story" — but that line was cut from the final edit to make Banks look clueless.
Banks' attorneys also allege that the Reality Check filmmakers "rearranged footage from the original ANTM broadcast" to make it look like Banks "initiated a discussion about cheating to manipulate Ms. Sullivan into making an on-air confession." The lawsuit claims that "Ms. Sullivan — not Ms. Banks — brought up the subject of infidelity and Ms. Banks responded," and that the documentarians manipulated the footage to make Banks look like the initiator.
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Banks' attorneys also claim that the documentary filmmakers did not tell her that the docuseries would show Miss J. Alexander talking about the fact that Banks did not visit him in the hospital after he had a stroke. The complaint claims that Banks attempted to contact Alexander numerous times after his health scare, and that they "spent three years communicating" after the incident, including a correspondence as recent as Christmas 2025.
The supermodel's complaint also claims that Banks declined to allow Netflix to use still images of herself to promote the docuseries because "nobody provided Ms. Banks with an opportunity to review" the show, and that "she could not promote what she had not seen."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
