Tyra Banks Revealed Her Modeling Career Was 'Over' Before Controversial 'ANTM' Documentary: It Was a 'Ticking Time Clock'

Tyra Banks said her modeling career was “over” months before the America’s Next Top Model documentary made headlines.

During a December 2025 interview on Nova's “The Jermaine Plane,” ahead of the release of the Netflix series, the supermodel revealed that she knows her work in front of the camera is winding down.

“My modeling career. I'm very proud of it, and I know I broke down a lot of doors for women of color and, you know, just and curves and all that,” she began. “Buy with the modeling...it's all about you or your pictures, and ‘look at my runway walk’ and all of that, and yes, my modeling was bigger than me and breaking down doors and things. But that, to me, has a ticking time clock. It's over. Like, an athlete...it's over...and yeah I'm out of retirement, but whatever...like I'd do a magazine cover once a month or something, but the ice cream, I want that to live forever.”

Banks’ comments on the podcast have resurfaced as she faces backlash following the release of Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model. In the docuseries, the Victoria’s Secret Angel addressed some of the show’s infamous controversies, including a race swap episode, posing with real homeless people and doing a photoshoot in a coffin. Although Banks admitted she made mistakes during her time as host and executive producer of ANTM, fans thought her appearance on the Netflix documentary was inauthentic, and that she seemed to be deflecting rather than giving a genuine apology for past behavior.

“Tyra Banks avoiding any accountability on the Netflix documentary,” a user titled an Instagram Reel showing an AI-generated version of Banks dancing foolishly.

“‘It was a different time, people were allowed to be awful, it wasn’t meeeeeee, it was the industry,’” one person made fun of Banks in the comments section of the video.

“And as much as this is funny, it’s such a shame that she did not take any accountability of nothing going on with production,” another added. “She was like I had nothing to do with that and it’s your freaking show.😂.”

In the docuseries, past ANTM contestants returned to share their stories of sexual assault, exploitation and aggressive physical demands (i.e. getting a gap tooth removed; losing weight) during their time on the show.

“It was very, very intense but you guys were demanding it, and so we kept pushing more and more and more,” Banks said in Reality Check.