Tyra Banks Sues Netflix for Defamation Over ANTM Docuseries

ANTM's Nigel Barker Reveals Where He Stands With Tyra Banks After Being Fired From Show

Tyra Banks is taking legal action against Netflix.

Banks filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix on June 13 after she appeared in the streaming service’s 2026 docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, according to court documents obtained by E! News.

Claiming Reality Check “was sold to viewers as a 'documentary series,'” the lawsuit read, "Netflix called it 'the definitive, must-watch chronicle of America's Next Top Model.' The genre matters. Viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts.”

“Because they were promised a documentary, that is exactly how viewers interacted with the Netflix Series,” the lawsuit added, claiming that many clips were "stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed."

Though Banks agreed to partake in the project because “she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show's legacy—its successes and its shortcomings,” the lawsuit claims that the moments where the former America’s Next Top Model host took accountability for the show’s controversies were edited out of the finished product.

In the docuseries—which explored alleged incidents of bullying, body shaming and racial profiling on the ANTM set—cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan claimed she had been sexually assaulted on-camera while filming the show in Italy in 2003.

Though Banks was asked about the alleged incident during the Netflix docuseries, to which she said she had no involvement in the doc, the 52-year-old claims the final cut placed the responsibility on her.

Photo by Darren Gerrish/Getty Images for Franca Fund

“The false narrative the producers constructed—through selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage—included that Ms. Banks knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant's trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked,” the filing read. “That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication—one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions."

While Banks—who served as executive producer and host of 22 cycles of the show, beginning in 2003— did “share her side,” the filing added, “her answers were very honest. But the story that viewers heard was the deceptive story producers chose to tell.”

E! News has reached out to Netflix for comment but has not heard back.

The 2026 docuseries featured interviews from Banks, as well as executive producer Ken Mok and former judges Jay Manuel, Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker as they recalled ANTM’s best and worst on-air moments.

Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

The exposé also featured the experiences of former contestants of the reality show.

Previously, Banks recognized both the cultural impact of the show as well as its shortcomings.

"Over 20 years ago I created a show called America’s Next Top Model," she said while accepting an award at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards in February 2025. "And you guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time when it didn’t exist.”

"Did we get it right?” she added. “Hell no. I said some dumb s--t."

That said, Banks stands by her impact.

"I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world," she continued. "And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow."

For the biggest bombshells from the infamous ANTM doc, read on…

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