Tyra Banks has been asked about Shandi Sullivan‘s onscreen sexual assault in America’s Next Top Model.
After Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model docuseries reexamined the assault, Banks was asked to comment on the season 2 assault.
“I do remember her story. It’s a little difficult for me to talk about production because that’s not my territory,” Tyra said.
In the documentary, released on Monday, February 16, Sullivan recalled getting assaulted during a trip to Italy for the show.
“When we first got there, they said, you’re gonna go to a bunch of go-sees,” she said of the 2004 episode. “That was all day long. It took all day long. And then we went back to our little house that we were staying at.”
Locals drove the models around on Vespas and joined them for dinner. Shandi recalled not eating anything and downing “two bottles of wine.”
Seeing her drunk, oneof the men decided to sexually assault her.
“I remember him on top of me. I was blacked out. No one did anything to stop it,” she claimed. “And it all got filmed, all of it.”
“I think after getting out of the hot tub and whatever happened after that, I think [production] should have been like, ‘All right, this has gone too far. We have to pull her out of this,'” Shandi said.
On the show, the incident was treated as a cheating incident since Shandi was in a relationship with then-boyfriend Eric.
Tyra told Shandi at the time, “Everybody has messed up, Shandi. I’m not judging you. But I think that we have to fight against our carnal desires. I understand that people do become attracted to other people. It’s all about your relationship and how open your relationship is and how honest you can be with one another.”
