The Internet is Calling Out the Irony of Tyra Banks’ New Netflix Lawsuit
Tyra Banks has unfortunately become the main topic of conversation in the social media streets, thanks to recent news of a shocking lawsuit she lobbed against Netflix. And believe us when we tell you, what folks are saying is anything but nice!
If you somehow missed it, Banks is suing the popular streamer for defamation related to “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” which aired in February 2026. According to legal documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, she’s alleging that the docuseries created a “false narrative” and used “selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage” to do so.
She claimed that she sat down for a three-and-a-half-hour conversation for the show, but only 16 minutes were actually included in the final product. Those 16 minutes, Banks argues, made it look as if she was avoiding accountability for the horrible part she played during “America’s Next Top Model’s” run when she actually wasn’t. Specifically, she’s alleging that the footage included was “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.”
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit reads: “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. 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.”
Additionally, Banks alleged that footage was manipulated and strategic editing was done in relation to Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan’s sexual assault in Milan. She also took issue with former judge Miss J Alexander’s reveal about her not visiting him in the hospital after his health scare years ago. Page Six also notes that Banks is “asking for a jury trial to determine the appropriate amount she should receive in damages.”
But while Banks may be feeling litigious over the documentary, others online who heard about the lawsuit noted the irony of her complaints. They believe she brought the problem on herself by exhibiting problematic behaviors.
“Oh ‘false narratives and deliberate editing.’ You act like you don’t know how reality TV work. Out of anybody, you should know how it work. If anything, now you know how your contestants felt when they were on production and edited them to be a certain type of way and that’s not how they really are in real life—now you know how they felt,” a user said in part on TikTok.
“Tyra spent 24 cycles selectively editing girls into villains for ratings… now Netflix gave her 16 mins of her own medicine and she’s suing? We were all rooting for you, Tyra. Karma walks the runway better than you ever did,” wrote someone on X/Twitter.
“The irony of it all is that she is claiming that Netflix did her what she did to the the girls on America’s Next Top Model for years which was “using specific footage to support a false and defamatory narrative,” said another.
“ANTM” Cycle 14 contestant Angelea Preston also echoed similar sentiments, telling EW: “Now you know how we feel. It’s kind of like a taste of your own medicine, in a way.”
