Adrianne Curry claims that she got paid “zero dollars” after winning the first season of America’s Next Top Model.
The model, 42, addressed her past experience on the reality competition in the Tuesday, June 3, episode of the “Just B with Bethenny Frankel” podcast.
Curry, who claimed the Top Model crown circa 2003, alleged that she “was the only winner that won no money. Zero dollars. … There was no money in my win. I got a title.”
She told host Frankel, 54, that the show had allegedly dangled the promise of a Revlon campaign amid filming, but removed any mention of the campaign when the inaugural season premiered.
“[Host Tyra Banks] was telling us we’re gonna be this huge Revlon-like superstar because I don’t think any of us would have fought as hard as we did for what the prize really was, which is the title,” Curry claimed. “So I always joke because people are like, ‘You still call yourself America’s Next Top Model?’ I’m like, it’s the only f***ing thing I won. I’m gonna put it on my tombstone.”
In 2023, Curry gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly in which she said that Revlon paid her $15,000 following her victory and “humiliated” her by inviting her to a corporate “back room” to get her makeup done for a small audience.
Despite her rocky experience, Curry currently has no interest in complaining about Banks, 51, who created ANTM and hosted it for 12 years.
“You know what’s really funny is everyone wanted me to dog pile on Tyra Banks when 2020 was happening and everyone was getting pissed,” Curry told Frankel. “And I was like, ‘No, because if anyone has a right to be mad at her, it’s me. And I’m over it. I don’t give a s*** anymore. What she taught me was the truth of entertainment.’”
She described her time on reality TV as “cutthroat,” explaining, “You can’t trust everybody and everyone is lying to you. So [Banks] actually gave me a great lesson, and the show was just an avenue for her to propel herself into something else after she aged out at modeling. I see that now. And if I can let it go, everyone else can.”
Curry pointed fingers at fans of the series for being complicit in its popularity and Banks’ success as a showrunner with a complicated persona.
“It was funny because everyone’s like, ‘Oh, she did this, she did that,’” Curry said of the recent backlash against Banks. “But then I would look at the people who watch the show, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but you watched it. You made it popular. It’s your fault too.’”
