Netflix filed court documents Friday seeking dismissal of Tyra Banks’ defamation lawsuit over the “America’s Next Top Model” documentary.
The streaming giant submitted its motion to a California federal judge to throw out claims brought by Banks, 52, in June over “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” a three-part docuseries that premiered February 16. A Netflix spokesperson fired back Saturday, telling Us Weekly that directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy “are respected documentarians who thoroughly interviewed the people behind ‘America’s Next Top Model.'”
“Tyra Banks was given the opportunity to speak openly about her experience and the creators fairly presented her perspective alongside those of every other participant shown in this documentary,” the statement continued. “We stand behind ‘Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model’ and will continue to vigorously defend it.”
Banks’ attorneys, Tom Locke and Clare Locke, responded swiftly to Netflix’s dismissal bid. In a statement to Us Weekly, they said her lawsuit “raises a simple question: can viewers trust that a documentary presented as fact fairly represents what happened and what people actually said?” They added, “Netflix’s response only underscores the issue.”
“It points to the editing of reality television to defend the editing of this documentary,” the statement went on. “No one disputes that documentaries are edited. The question is whether those edits materially distorted the truth. This is not about Tyra being ‘dissatisfied’ with an edit, nor is it about wanting creative control. It is about whether viewers were given an accurate representation of her words and the facts.”
The attorneys further challenged Netflix to release Banks’ complete interview footage. “Netflix has Tyra’s complete, unedited interview,” they said. “If Netflix stands behind the accuracy of its documentary, it should release that interview in full and let viewers judge for themselves. Let the public compare what Tyra actually said with what Netflix chose to show. The facts are the facts and, here, the facts are recorded and being hidden by Netflix.”
Banks filed her lawsuit June 13 in federal court in California, naming Netflix, EverWonder Studio, Netflix Music, 89 Blocks Holdings, and directors Sivan and Loushy. She is seeking a jury trial to determine damages and an injunction barring use of her image on the documentary’s soundtrack album cover.
The supermodel’s legal filing claims she sat for a three-and-a-half-hour interview because she “believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show’s legacy—its successes and its shortcomings.” The lawsuit states she “did not limit the ‘ANTM’ topics the interviewer could ask,” and that she “answered questions about the show’s groundbreaking history, including criticism of decisions she would approach differently today.”
Yet only 16 minutes of her footage made the final cut, which she described as “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed.” The filing contends the series was “sold to the viewers as a ‘documentary series,'” and that “viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts.”
In the viral moment that helped spark the legal battle, the docuseries addressed cycle two contestant Shandi Sullivan’s 2004 experience in Milan, where she was filmed drinking heavily and getting into bed with a male model while having a boyfriend back home. In the original broadcast, the incident was framed as a cheating storyline. In the Netflix series, Sullivan stated she had blacked out and now viewed the encounter as assault.
When directors asked Banks about Sullivan’s trauma, the final cut depicted the supermodel glancing upward and saying “um” before the screen cut to black. Banks’ lawsuit counters that the unedited footage shows her nodding affirmatively and stating, “I do remember her story,” before that upward glance—material she says was surgically removed to manufacture a false impression.
The lawsuit also addresses claims about Banks’ response to misconduct allegations. When a crew member reported a cast member’s “pattern” of inappropriate sexual conduct during one cycle, Banks says she “immediately shared the report with other executives and ensured the issue was escalated to the network.” Production was paused for sexual harassment training conducted by an outside expert, her filing states.
Additionally, Banks disputes the documentary’s portrayal of her relationship with judge Miss J Alexander following his 2022 stroke. The series showed him saying she had not visited him, only sent a text. Banks claims she had been living in Australia for two and a half years, had tried repeatedly to contact him through texts and calls that went unanswered, and that she and Miss J exchanged messages as recently as Christmas Day 2025.
Several former “ANTM” participants have weighed in publicly. Cycle three winner Eva Marcille said at LAX, “Get your money, Black woman. Do your thing.” Cycle eight winner Jaslene González said she has “nothing but gratitude for Banks.” Panelist Kelly Cutrone, who appeared on cycles 18 through 22, told the outlet she believed “80 percent of [the docuseries] is incredibly twisted.”