Winning “America’s Next Top Model” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for the show’s first champion, Adrianne Curry.
While the series certainly gave her more exposure, the former reality star claims it was a total “shit show” for her after Tyra Banks crowned her the winner — saying she never got the modeling opportunities or pay day she was promised. Though this is hardly Curry’s first time speaking out about the series, she reiterated her issues with the show in a new Instagram post on Tuesday.
“Why the fallout? I have addressed this before, but I keep hearing the lies told by others,” Curry began. “Many season 1 girls follow me on here and can back me that voice overs were added to our show saying things they never said to us… We were led to believe daily the winner would be instantly rich and a huge Revlon cover girl. This was a lie. They added recordings to what was said after the fact.”
“After the show, Revlon informed me it didn’t matter who won, they were never going to have us as a model,” she claimed. “I cried at that meeting & they felt bad. They had me sit in a makeup chair in a tiny conference room while 6 people watched a makeup artist put makeup on me for $. Fine. Sure, I was crushed. I believed what I won with all my heart and thought I’d be able to really help my family. That is why I said it at the very end of the show. However, I was offered $$ to sit in that chair, so I was stoked.”
“I never got the money. To this day, I have not been paid,” she continued, saying both Top Model and modeling agency Wilhelmina pointed the finger at each other as to why she wasn’t financially compensated for her work. “All I wanted was my f–king money,” she wrote.
“Wilhelmina informed me that top model burned their bridge with them by choosing IMG the next season and dumping them,” she continued, saying that her own agency “hated” her and did more to promote third-place competitor Elyse Sewell “to spite Tyra.” She added, “I hated my agent. I begged top model to help me leave my agency. I didn’t get paid AND I was locked in a contract with an agency THEY pissed off. Crickets.”
Curry said she did not believe Banks would “do all the work” for her, but hoped for “help to break from the agency they pissed off” as she was “stuck in a contract w/people who wanted me to fail.”
“It was a shit show!!!” she exclaimed, comparing it to “winning the lotto, doing the press, holding that big check up for the cameras AND NEVER GETTING A DIME!”
She tagged a few of her Season 1 alums in her post, with Giselle Linette Samson showing support. “I back what she is saying. TOP MODEL was a fraud,” wrote Giselle. “And I want to say that first elimination we went through @tyrabanks said to me that ‘I needed to work on humility that I should be more humble otherwise America wasn’t going to like me’ so I started self deprecating myself so I wouldn’t seem so ‘cocky’ and I became the girl with ‘No Confidence’ F–K ANTM!!! ADRIANNE I wanted to go live with you and talk about all this!!!!!”
In the comments to her post, Curry was also asked why she spoke out again now. “Because the show did their propaganda how I immediately transformed into a diva,” she explained. “Expecting all this stuff and not lifting a finger to work or propel myself forward. It made them look good and me like I was some ungrateful asshat.” She also said she “was very mad for years,” adding, “Nothing had hurt as bad as this did.”
Curry was also asked what Tyra thought about her doing Playboy in 2006. “She is why I did it,” said Adrianne, “200% to give ‘Top Model’ the finger.”
TooFab has contacted reps for Tyra Banks and Wilhelmina seeking comment.
It’s been 17 years since she won the first season and Curry says “it’s all good now.” She added, “I think it’s pretty f–king crazy and hilarious, honestly. It’s a hell of a story!” These days, Curry is married to voice actor Matthew Rhode. The two tied the knot with a “Game of Thrones”-inspired wedding in 2018 and currently live far from Hollywood in Montana.
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