- - Tyra Banks Refuses to Discuss Her Falling Out with Jay Manuel in “America's Next Top Model” Documentary

Desiree Anello, Hedy PhillipsFebruary 18, 2026 at 3:03 AM

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Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel in Netflix’s "Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model"

Netflix (2)

Tyra Banks refused to comment on her falling out with former costar Jay Manuel in Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model

“Nah, I’d prefer … Yeah, I should call Jay,” she said when asked about their falling out

Manuel has since told PEOPLE that he “never got that phone call,” despite Banks still having his number

Tyra Banks is keeping her and Jay Manuel’s relationship drama between the two of them.

In Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Manuel, 53, opened up about how his relationship with Banks, 52, changed after he made the decision to part ways with the reality competition show. But when the former supermodel was asked if she wanted to provide her own account of their falling out, Banks replied with a simple, “Nah.”

“I’d prefer … Yeah, I should call Jay,” she continued in the documentary. “He’s a special man.”

Since then, however, Manuel has told PEOPLE that his phone never rang.

Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel during Health Magazine's Fifth Annual Healthy Beauty Awards

Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic

"I never got that phone call," he said nearly a year after the documentary was filmed. "I don't think I'm getting a phone call. She's got my number."

As for why Manuel decided to exit America’s Next Top Model? He admitted in the documentary that the way in which some models were treated on the show “was slowly depleting me and kind of chipping away at my soul.” So, when cycle 8 came around, he emailed Banks to thank her for everything and say goodbye to his role as panelist.

"She didn’t respond," he recalled. "It was probably the longest three days ever. And she ultimately wrote back just three words. 'I am disappointed.' After that email exchange, all communication just stopped. It should’ve been the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart, but that did not happen."

Despite his desire to move on to the next chapter of his life, Manuel came back for cycle 9 out of fear that he would be “blacklisted” from the industry.

“There was a warning that strikes the fear of God in you,” he said. “People talk about being blacklisted. Those words were not used, but I suspected that's what it would turn into, and I didn't know how to talk to … because honestly the person I would always talk to was Tyra."

From then on, Manuel told PEOPLE that Banks would act as if their relationship had never changed while the cameras were on. But as soon as they turned off, she “chose not to speak" with him at all.

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Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

"After [trying to leave], I did cycle 9, which was ... torture for me,” he admitted to PEOPLE. “I was so broken by the end of that cycle because of the mental torture of what was going on."

Following his official departure from the show in 2012 alongside fellow panelists Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker, Manuel said that the last time he saw Banks was in 2017 when they bumped into each other at BeautyCon and had a “really nice conversation.”

"Other than that, we've had no communication of any sort, text, email, anything," he told PEOPLE. "Tyra and I were close, and when we were in New York shooting, or even in L.A. shooting, she'd be at my house or I'd be at her house, and we would really download. But at the same time, and she knows this to be true, the things that are those really, really trusted important things that she has said to me, I will never repeat. I will forever honor my relationship with her in the past."

Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model is streaming on Netflix now.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”