Former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Tiffany Richardson — who was the recipient of Tyra Banks’s infamous “WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!” rant during Cycle 4 of the reality TV series — is speaking her mind following the release of Netflix’s docuseries “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.”
Quick recap: The moment in question is one of many that’s reexamined in the docuseries. In the original clip — which has since become meme’d to oblivion — Banks claims that “I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this” after telling Richardson that she was “extremely disappointed” in her. “When my mother yells like this, it’s because she loves me,” she exclaims. “I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you!”
In the docuseries, former “ANTM” judge Jay Manuel referred to the moment as the “most difficult moment on set I had ever experienced,” and claimed that “production staff literally just took Banks off set” after shooting had commenced. “Some of the things that were said were not well-intentioned,” he added. “I will probably never repeat the lines that were actually said in the room that day.”
Banks addressed the moment directly in the docuseries as well, saying that she “lost it” and that the specific moment of her outburst “was probably bigger than” Tiffany herself. “It was family, friends, society, Black girls, all the challenges that we have. So many people saying that we’re not good enough. I think all that was in that moment.”
