America’s Next Top Model star Jay Manuel happy to ‘never’ speak with Tyra Banks again
Jay Manuel doesn’t miss his friendship with Tyra Banks. (Getty/Netflix)
Former America’s Next Top Model creative director Jay Manuel has said that he is content with never speaking to the show’s host Tyra Banks again.
In Netflix’s new bombshell docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Banks, Manuel and judge Miss J Alexander discuss the show’s downfall and the increasingly egregious challenges its contestants faced during its 15-year run.
Tyra Banks seemed open to discussing the show’s most controversial moments, from the photoshoot challenge in which contestants had to swap races, to the time a contestant was filmed having sex while so inebriated she could barely remain conscious.
Yet Banks did not wish to talk about her relationship with her former best pal Jay Manuel.
Manuel joined Banks as a creative director on America’s Next Top Model in 2003, the year of the show’s inception. Banks, Manuel and Alexander’s connection was a major pull for the show’s fans. Yet, Manuel says in the documentary, by cycle (season) eight in 2007 he had become jaded with the show’s more contentious elements.
“I really struggled over some of the things that happened, and that was something that was slowly depleting me, chipping away at my soul,” he says, explaining that emailed Banks to let her know he intended to quit the show.
After receiving no response for three days, Banks then sent him an email which he alleges simply read: “I am disappointed.”
Manuel was convinced to extend his run on the show beyond cycle eight, but claims in Reality Check that Banks wouldn’t speak to him unless the cameras were rolling.
“On camera, [me and Tyra] learned to play and laugh… but it was just clear I was not allowed to speak to her outside of that,” he said.
He stayed on the show until the end of cycle 18 in 2012, when he claims he was fired, along with Alexander and the show’s photographer, Nigel Barker. “For my birthday, Tyra sent me flowers… and then I was fired five days later,” Manuel claimed.
“Nah. I should call Jay,” Banks tells producers in Reality Check when asked whether she’s willing to speak on her friendship with Manuel. “I don’t wanna do this here.”
Yet, according to a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, that call to him never happened.
“My phone number’s the same. She knows it. I have not gotten a phone call, but I don’t think I will get that phone call to be honest with you and I’m not expecting it,” Manuel told the outlet.
“In Tyra’s world, and this can speak to everyone in Tyra’s world, you don’t leave Tyra, Tyra leaves you. If I never spoke with Tyra again in this lifetime, I’m OK with that. I’m really OK with that. I don’t need it.”
It appears Jay Manuel isn’t alone in being ditched by his former friend. In the documentary, Miss J Alexander reveals that he was left unable to walk and talk following a stroke in 2022, but that Banks didn’t come to visit him.
During a chat with Sherri Shepherd yesterday (19 February), Alexander agreed that he had been left feeling “a certain type of way” after Banks didn’t see him.
“She reached out to me when it first happened,” he said, but confirmed that they had not met in person. He later confirmed that the pair did speak over the phone several weeks ago ahead of Reality Check landing on Netflix, with Banks promising to meet up with Alexander.
“Not yet,” Alexander told Vulture when asked about whether they had met in the wake of the bombshell, three-part series.
“She called me up three weeks ago and said she wanted to come visit. I said, ‘Sure, OK.’ But I haven’t seen her yet. I think she’ll wait for a ticket to be paid for,” he said, adding that he would still be up for reuniting in person if the opportunity arises.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is streaming now on Netflix.
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