Tyra Banks files defamation lawsuit vs Netflix over 'America's Next Top Model' docuseries

Tyra Banks has sued Netflix over defamation for her portrayal in Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model.

In a lawsuit filed in a US district court, Banks claimed that out of her three-and-a-half-hour interview about America's Next Top Model, only 16 minutes were used in the three-part docuseries.

She also said that her comments were "stripped out of context, and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed."

"Tyra Banks participated in the Netflix documentary series America's Next Top Model because she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show's legacy—its successes and its shortcomings. There are aspects of the show for which Ms. Banks takes accountability and she wanted ANTM viewers to hear that from her directly," the lawsuit stated, as per PEOPLE Magazine.

It added that Banks took accountability for some of the most controversial moments on the reality competition, which were supposedly not included in the Netflix series.

"Worse, 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. That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication—one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions," the lawsuit continued.

This pertained to the alleged sexual assault of ANTM Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan by a male model while she was blacked out. The reality competition presented the incident as Sullivan cheating on her boyfriend at the time. When Tyra was asked about Sullivan in Episode 1, she responded with "um" before the screen cut to black.

"The implication is devastating and deliberate: that Tyra Banks cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show. But that was false. The full footage of Ms. Banks' interview reveals two things that the producers cut out and did not show viewers in Episode 1," the host's camp said. Banks' response—where she said she remembers Sullivan's story—was eventually shown in the second episode.