TV host and makeup artist Jay Manuel has been opening up about his friendship with Tyra Banks amid the release of Netflix‘s new documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.
Manuel served as the on-screen creative director for America’s Next Top Model for nine years before leaving to pursue other opportunities. He originally worked as a makeup artist with Banks, who brought him aboard the reality competition series when it launched in 2003.
However, in Cycle 8 of the hit show, Manuel was ready to move on, and he emailed Banks to let her know.
“She didn’t respond,” he said in the doc, per People. “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.”
Network executives eventually persuaded Manuel to return for Cycle 9 while they figured out a replacement. Manuel described his experience that season as “mental torture,” claiming that Banks would only talk to him when the cameras were rolling.
“I was so broken by the end of that cycle because of the mental torture of what was going on,” the Canada’s Next Top Model host told People.
Banks was asked about the situation with Manuel in the Netflix doc, though she declined to answer. Instead, the model and host said that she “should call” her former friend and deal with the matter personally.
“I never got that phone call,” Manuel shared in his update. “I don’t think I’m getting a phone call. She’s got my number.”
Manuel did reveal he bumped into Banks at BeautyCon in 2017 and had a “really nice conversation” with her. But since then, the pair have had “no communication of any sort, text, email, anything.”
“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,” he added. “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.”
He also said he is still “open” to talking to Banks if she wants to, noting, “I’m in a healed place. I wish her no ill will.”
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Streaming Now, Netflix
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