Tyra Banks is back in the news after a former America’s Next Top Model contestant revealed that they were paid minimally for their participation on the show. Sarah Hartshorne, who now making a living as a competition, alleged that the models were paid a small fee and also left to fiend for themselves as far as providing food. But another contestant from the show is coming to the Dancing With the Stars host’s defense.
What Sarah Hartshorne revealed about her time on ‘ANTM’
Hartshorne went viral after she revealed that models had to fend for themselves financially, even when it came to meals.
Directing people to her previous videos TikTok, she also referenced the NDA she and her castmates had to sign in order to be featured in the show, alleging that “partway through filming the first episode, they marched all the girls into this conference room that was full of a team of lawyers and all the producers, and they sat us down. … And we were all sitting on the ground looking up at them like kindergarteners waiting for a snack. And they told us that the contract we’d signed a few weeks ago meant that if we talked about anything that had happened or was going to happen, we would be sued for $10 million.”
Hartshorne also said that there wasn’t even a microwave in the house for them to warm up their food. She also claimed they were severely overworked.
Tocarra Jones defends Tyra Banks
As Banks continues to be on the receiving end of social media backlash, Tocarra Jones, who competed on Season 3 of the show, says Banks is being unfairly crucified.
“First of all, we didn’t get paid anything, it’s a contest,” she said to TMZ, as reported by Cinema Blend. “So, there’s no payment. When do people pay to be in a contest or get paid to be in a contest? The whole purpose of a contest is to win a prize. You know what I’m saying, it’s for the exposure. That $40 dollars was for per diem, it was a per diem so you actually didn’t get paid, technically. No one got paid, because if someone got paid there could be legal issues about a winner or who got paid how much. It could’ve been a whole big drama… It’s a contest.”
She continued, “Of course, you cannot cancel Tyra! No! … Right, like this is the modeling world. She didn’t create this; she just showed y’all. She just became the face of it, which is great. You know what? You’re gonna get some good and you’re gonna get some bad and it comes with the territory. Back to the tough skin. I love Tyra, she’s still thrivin’, she’s still doing good, and she’s going to continue doing good. People are still talking about the franchise and here we are still speaking about it, so…”