Angelea Preston and cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry have publicly shaded the supermodel after Banks filed a legal complaint against the creators behind Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model docuseries. The Angelea Preston Tyra Banks clash escalated quickly, with Preston delivering a pointed message: now you know how we felt.
In a phone interview with EW, Preston, who attempted to sue ANTM in 2014 for $3 million before dropping the case, zeroed in on specific language from Banks’ legal filing. The complaint references “surgical manipulation” and “selective editing” by the Reality Check docuseries filmmakers.
Preston’s response was razor-sharp. “Now you know how we feel,” she told EW. “It’s kind of like a taste of your own medicine, in a way.”
The implication was unmistakable. For 24 cycles, former contestants have alleged that ANTM engaged in exactly the same tactics Banks is now suing over: selective editing, situational manipulation, and psychological pressure designed to generate television drama.
Preston went further. She told EW that if Banks’ allegations against the docuseries are true, she would consider it “karma” for what numerous ANTM contestants have described experiencing during their time on the show.
Her 2014 lawsuit claimed she suffered emotional distress and financial harm due to how producers handled her trajectory on the series. The case was later dropped, but the resentment clearly never faded.
Adrianne Curry, winner of the very first ANTM cycle, had an even shorter response. In a social media video, she looked directly at the camera and asked Banks: “Bitch! For real, girl?”
The four words captured what many former contestants seem to be feeling. After years of denying claims that ANTM manipulated its participants, Banks is now arguing that someone else manipulated her story.
The irony is not lost on fans or former cast members. A show built on dramatic editing and producer-driven conflict is now suing over dramatic editing and producer-driven conflict. Whether Banks wins her legal battle or not, the court of public opinion already has a verdict.
And the jury is made up of the women who lived through it first.
