Tyra Banks – Former ‘ANTM’ Judge Jay Manuel On Recent Backlash Against Model: It’s A Little Unfair But I Can’t Really Defend Her

Jay Manuel and Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks – Former ‘ANTM’ Judge Jay Manuel On Recent Backlash Against Model: It’s A Little Unfair But I Can’t Really Defend Her

Former “America’s Next Top Model” judge Jay Manuel answered questions in a recent interview with Variety about his relationship with Tyra Banks and the backlash she’s gotten for her comments about Danielle Evans’gap back in Cycle 6 of the hit show.

Whilst there’s been a lot of talk about Tyra’s tyranny on ANTM in recent years, there was absolutely a specific type of regulation, silencing and policing that was directed towards Black women on the show, and dark skinned Black women in particular. https://t.co/oXvM6FYAvW

— jade bentil (@divanificent) May 5, 2020

Jay Manuel is promoting his novel “The Wig, The B*tch, and The Meltdown” which was inspired by his time on America’s Next Top Model. He was on the show for 18 seasons until his departure in 2014, which is when he started writing the novel.

When asked about the status of his current relationship with the series creator Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel states,

“Over the past few years, we’ve emailed, to be very honest, we really have no relationship to speak of, which is really sad. Our time together on ‘ANTM’ was amazingly productive and, at times, magical. We got to experience being part of a global phenomenon.”

Jay also says the last time he saw Tyra Banks was a run-in at Beautycon in 2017. Jay was asked about the recent controversy that the show has gotten and whether the backlash towards Tyra was fair. Jay responded,

“I do think it’s a little unfair for people to persecute Tyra now, especially because she has already taken heat for her past executive decisions in past years. However, I can’t really defend her either because when ratings were high and things were great, she remained a clear figurehead, because it was her show. Consistently, when s–t hit the fan and people wanted to talk about some of the things that were said on the show, we would have another singular EP come forward to claim that all creative decisions were made as the team, and I really wish that were the case, but that just simply is not true.”

Danielle Evans responded in a video captioned “My Truth” where she says that she actually didn’t mind Tyra and co-judge Miss Jay’s comments about her gap at the moment. But now that she realized that other girls saw that, she felt like she needed to speak up.

Tyra also responded to the controversial scene in a tweet after things settled down on social media.

What are your thoughts on Jay Manuel’s comments about Tyra Banks being harsh on Danielle Evans? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.