Former America’s Next Top Model creative director Jay Manuel has a subtle update about his fractured friendship with Tyra Banks.
“It’s also difficult to separate friendship from business when the two become so deeply intertwined,” Manuel, 53, wrote in an essay for The New York Times published Saturday, March 21. “At its core, Top Model was a business built to produce television that millions would watch, and it succeeded in that, but not without losing something along the way.”
He continued, “Relationships are complicated. Power imbalances can exist within and alongside a genuine friendship. These contradictions are not evidence of deception. They are evidence of being human.”
Manuel appeared on the first 18 cycles of ANTM alongside host Banks, 52, serving first as a makeup artist during cycle 1 and later as creative director and photo shoot director.
“I admired Tyra’s drive, her vision and the way she pushed against a world that often tried to define her,” he noted in his Saturday article. “I saw the pressures she was carrying and the weight of what she was trying to build. Over time, as the show grew and the stakes got higher, the dynamic between us shifted, and so did my understanding of it. That left me questioning the version of our relationship I had once believed in.”
Manuel recently participated in Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, claiming that he emailed Banks and the show’s producers to leave after season 8 to pursue other opportunities. Per the TV personality, Banks allegedly wrote back, “I am disappointed,” and ceased further communication.
Manuel ultimately felt pressure to return for another season.
“It was really, really unfortunate because the show became a global phenomenon,” he exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping in 2020 of his ANTM return. “We had such magical moments. Tyra and I had a relationship, a work relationship, that started well before America’s Next Top Model and we became friends.”
While Manuel told Us that he was “ready to kind of move on,” his comments impacted his relationship status with Banks.
“I showed up and she didn’t want to speak with me. I didn’t know what that meant,” he added of appearing on cycle 9. “I didn’t know what to do with that. I did not have the tools at the time to process that, so that was difficult for me.”
According to Manuel, he was no longer producing photo shoots and just appeared as a weekly challenge host.
“I was just talent. So, it was just very, very, very uncomfortable,” Manuel told Us. “What was difficult for me was, you know, when the cameras were on we’d talk, but when they were off, I had no communication. It was uncomfortable.”
Manuel was ultimately let go from the show in 2012, and his bond with Banks was never repaired. Another five years later, Manuel ran into Banks at BeautyCon 2017.
“Other than that, we’ve had no communication of any sort, text, email [or] anything,” he told People in February, detailing a “nice conversation” with the supermodel. “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.”
