“America's Next Top Model” winner says agents asked her to remove ribs and lighten her skin tone
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Cycle 23 winner India Gants referenced real-life "Baby Reindeer" inspiration Fiona Harvey when she called out agents she said pressured her to alter her body.
America's Next Top Model cycle 23 winner India Gants has alleged that fashion industry agents once asked her to make drastic changes to her body when she was 18 years old.
The model and TV star, who was 20 when she competed on and eventually won ANTM's 23rd cycle in 2017, made the reveal Thursday in a TikTok video that also incorporated audio from Piers Morgan's recent interview with the alleged real-life Baby Reindeer inspiration, Fiona Harvey.
"My message to all the modeling agents who ruined my body image by telling me to lose weight, lighten my skin tone, and remove ribs when I was just 18 years old," Gants wrote in a caption that appeared over the video, while she lip-synced to one of Harvey's quotes from the interview, in which she said: "Leave me alone, please. Get a life, get a proper job. I am horrified at what you’ve done."
When reached for comment, Gants tells Entertainment Weekly, "It was an agency overseas, and I’m not comfortable sharing which agency or who said it."
Gants regularly uses her TikTok account to reveal details about her career and time on the show, as her cycle marked the first in ANTM history to not feature creator-producer Tyra Banks as head judge. Banks sat out the show's move from The CW to VH1 in 2016, though she appeared at the final judging that led to Gants' crowning, after temporarily relinquishing the reins to pop star Rita Ora for the rest of the season.
In April, Gants alleged on TikTok that Banks warned her that, if she told anyone that she'd won the series before it aired, that the show would reshoot the finale to give the title to another model.
"I was told I couldn’t tell my family or my significant other or my closest friends — nobody," she said. "But I think enough time has passed where I can confess who I told. Obviously, I wanted to keep the secret, but I have to make plans for my life. If I’m making a move to New York, my significant other at the time had to know." (A representative for Banks did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment at the time.)
Fellow ANTM winner Naima Mora also spoke about her experience with modeling agents in an October 2023 TikTok post, in which she alleged that she was dropped by an agency after gaining weight.
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Gants' victory occurred at the end of the second-to-last cycle ANTM has aired in its lifespan. Banks told Entertainment Weekly in a 2018 interview for her role in Life-Size 2 that she considered bringing the modeling competition series back for cycle 25 — which she indicated would be its last, and that it might even be the franchise's second all-star cycle with returning fan-favorite contestants.
Later, in May, a source familiar with the situation exclusively told EW that Banks had no current plans to bring the reality competition series back for another cycle, as the 50-year-old model and mogul is focused on building her SMiZE & DREAM ice cream brand.
See Gants' TikTok post above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
