Former ANTM Winner Alleges ‘Psychological Warfare’ On The Show After Netflix’s Tell-All Doco

A former contestant from America’s Next Top Model has recounted her “fucked up” experience on the show after its controversies were explored in a new Netflix documentary. 

The three-part doco, titled Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, landed on the streamer earlier this week, and promised to offer an “unprecedented look” at the competition series — which ran for 10 years from 2003 and endured multiple scandals along the way. 

In a snippet released prior to the doco, host Tyra Banks admitted to “pushing more and more and more” out of contestants to the point of going “too far”, but Adrianne Curry has now come forward with claims that delve deeper into the show’s demanding environment.

Curry — who won the show’s debut season — claimed to the Daily Mail that castmates were left hungry and tired on set due to the show’s gruelling filming schedule. 

“We would have to wait all day for catering to come to any set. We were so fucking hungry all the time. I’ve never been so hungry,” Curry claimed, adding that the schedule left her sleepless until the early morning hours. 

“We wouldn’t be allowed to go to sleep until after elimination, which sometimes would last until three in the morning, and then they’d have a personal trainer run in and wake us up at like 5am,” Curry said. 

Looking back, Curry said she now considers the schedule to be intentional on the part of producers. “Now I know that it was psychological warfare,” she alleged. 

“I think they knew that the more sleep deprived and hungry and fucked up we were, the better television would be.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Curry alleged that she was left with “open sores” on her head during a makeover episode that involved her being fitted with a weave.

“I don’t have hair that supports a weave, so it permanently damaged my head,” she said. “I was so uncomfortable the entire time.’ 

Curry went on to claim that the experience was reflective of what she would later endure in the broader industry, saying “you cannot trust any of these people” in modelling and that “nothing they say is real”. 

In a video shared on social media earlier today, Curry addressed Banks directly, saying “that bitch is not effing sorry” after critics claimed she and the other ANTM hosts refused to apologise for the show’s gruelling conditions in the Netflix doco. 

“She won’t bend the knee,” Curry said. “If [the hosts] didn’t give a f– at the time, they certainly ain’t gonna give a f– now.”

Banks has not addressed the controversy beyond her comments in the snippet. But fans can make up their own minds regarding the scandals with Reality Check available now on Netflix. 

Lead images: UPN and Getty Images