Last week, multiple clips of Tyra Banks’ reality television show, America’s Next Top Model, began to go viral. Critics used the short videos to point out instances of Banks exhibiting seemingly problematic behavior, such as admonishing one contestant to close her gap and allowing another to do blackface.
Over the weekend, the veteran model and show host spoke out about the videos, writing that she agreed with many critics.
“Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you,” Banks wrote on Twitter Friday. “Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and I am sending so much love and virtual hugs.”
Banks spoke up after former contestant and season six America’s Next Top Model winner Danielle “Dani” Evans addressed a viral clip that showed Banks and runway coach Miss Jay Alexander pushing for Evans to close the gap between her teeth.
“Do you think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?” Banks asked Evans during the elimination round.
Evans answered: “Yes, why not?”
“It’s not marketable,” Banks responded.
In the end, Evans agreed to close the gap—but not completely.
Alexander joked, “I guess she left the ‘gap’ wide open for another girl, baby.”
Evans said although she felt “basically set up” after “not being told Tyra wants me to get my gap closed” by a producer, she refused to let that scene derail her ambitions of becoming a model. “I had a laser focus goal. Nothing or no one was going to stand in my way,” Evans said last week.
Evans, who recently signed with Elite Model Management in New York City, would go onto win that season of America’s Next Top Model. The series ran for 15 seasons in the U.S. ending in 2018.