NEW YORK – Tyra Banks filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix and the directors of its America’s Next Top Model docuseries, claiming they manipulated hours of interview footage to support a false narrative about her role on the show.

The lawsuit, filed on June 13 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, says that the three-part docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which premiered on Netflix in February, defamed Banks by implication and portrayed her in a false light.

The lawsuit also claims breach of contract and false endorsement. The production company EverWonder Studio is also named as a defendant.

Representatives for Netflix, as well as for the show’s directors, Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, and EverWonder Studio did not respond to requests for comment on June 14. A representative for Banks declined to comment.

Reality Check, which explored the legacy of triumphs and controversies of America’s Next Top Model, drew a variety of responses. Some questioned why it had taken so long to scrutinise the show, which ran in the United States for 24 seasons (or “cycles,” in the show’s parlance) between 2003 and 2018.

Others wanted to hold Banks, who created, hosted and executive produced America’s Next Top Model, accountable for the show’s missteps. These included asking models to pose as people who were homeless, bulimic, drug-addicted or victims of violent crime, and requesting them to adopt different races or ethnicities.

Banks says in her lawsuit that the producers did not share enough of her responses from the 3½-hour interview she had given to them, in which she answered questions about the show’s history, including criticism of decisions that she says she would approach differently today.

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