Top Model winner, Real Housewives star Eva Marcille reveals 'amazingly horrified' reaction to ANT...

The cycle 3 winner previously spoke to EW about posing with a tarantula in 2004. Top Model winner, Real Housewives star Eva Marcille reveals 'amazingly horrified' reaction to ANTM doc allegations The cycle 3 winner previously spoke to EW about posing with a tarantula in 2004. :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/JoeyNolfiauthorphotoba4923fec03a4027868306485696ef41.jpg) Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at . Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul's Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more. EW's editorial guidelines February 19, 2026 12:19 p.m.

The cycle 3 winner previously spoke to EW about posing with a tarantula in 2004.

Top Model winner, Real Housewives star Eva Marcille reveals 'amazingly horrified' reaction to ANTM doc allegations

The cycle 3 winner previously spoke to EW about posing with a tarantula in 2004.

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes *RuPaul's Drag Race* video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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February 19, 2026 12:19 p.m. ET

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'America's Next Top Model' winner Eva Marcille. Credit: UPN

*America's Next Top Model* winner and *Real Housewives of Atlanta* alum Eva Marcille has revealed her "gobsmacked" reaction to Netflix's new bombshell *Reality Check* docuseries probing Tyra Banks' various *ANTM* controversies.

As viewers, former contestants, and past *ANTM* judges continue digesting revelations made in the three-part project, Marcille — who won *Top Model* cycle 3 in 2004 — said she had no idea about the wide-ranging allegations covered in the series.

"When I first found out there was a documentary, I was amazed. I remember reaching out to [former creative director] Jay Manuel like, 'Is this the same *Top Model *that we did, because how don't I know about this?'" Marcille, who previously spoke to ** about her *ANTM* experience in 2023, said Thursday on *CBS Mornings. *She also said that the documentary crew did not ask her to participate.

'ANTM' cycle 3 winner Eva Marcille.

CBS; Annette Brown/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Marcille went on to reveal her reaction upon learning of the things covered in the series, many of which have long been discussed in the public sphere — including criticism over shoots that required models to wear dark makeup to portray women of different races, alleged on-camera sexual assault, instances of the judges body shaming certain competitors, and Banks pressuring cycle 6 winner Dani Evans to undergo a medical procedure amid the contest.

"It was very surprising, and then I watched it. After I watched it, I was gobsmacked. I was in awe. I told Jay my mouth was wide open. To be a part of a club and not know what's going on in the club is crazy," Marcille told host Gayle King on the morning show, who asked Marcille to clarify her reaction further.

Marcille explained that she was "amazingly horrified for the stories," though her experience didn't match what she saw.

'ANTM' winner reveals 'f---ed up' phone call with Tyra Banks 15 years after show

Whoopi Goldberg apologizes for laughing at 'ANTM' star's runway fall: 'One of the funniest things'

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"I had no idea, absolutely no idea," she said, adding that *ANTM* is the one project she consistently receives questions about in interviews across the last two decades.

When asked about the role producers had in shaping *ANTM*, Marcille, who was on *RHOA* from seasons 10-13, said she felt that "that environment could not exist without producers aiding and abetting what was going on. I've done reality now on every level, *Housewives*, I mean, I don't know what's going on in someone's life unless the producers tell me. It's part of how this thing works."**

Still, the *All the Queen's Men* actress said that she "will never fail to thank Tyra" over what the boundary-breaking supermodel "set out to do in this business" for women of color and for women of different body types.

"I will always say, especially for *Top Model — *initially — she set out to change the world, to change what the modeling industry looked like, sounded like, felt like, and expected. And she did that for me," Marcille said.

King closed the interview by raising an additional point about Banks, asking Marcille about the level of atonement the supermodel-turned-ice-cream-mogul has expressed so far.

"She apologized a million times, but an apology to the person that you wronged is only as good as they could appreciate it," Marcille replied, adding that "there is no sorry I think that's big enough to truly filll and heal that kind of hurt."

Twiggy, J. Alexander, Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, Roy Campbell on 'ANTM'.

Representatives for Banks and producer Ken Mok — both of whom also appear in *Reality Check* — have not replied to EW's multiple requests for comment on the series.

In 2023, Marcille reflected to EW about a cycle 3 shoot that saw her posing with a tarantula crawling all over her face.

"I have no clue how this picture did not just have tears everywhere. I was terrified. I was mortified. I don't know how I got a good picture at all. It taught me a lot about life, like that Whitney Houston song, I didn't realize the strength in me. You don't realize it until you go through something scary enough and come out because you stood firm," she told EW at the time, adding that contestants had to disclose various phobias to production before the program. "But," she cautioned, "don't take pictures with tarantulas. Those s--ts aren't nice. Those little hairs you see? They stick to you as it moves. It's scratching, and it's horrible."

Tyra Banks on 'America's Next Top Model'.

Daniel Garriga/CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Netflix

For the 2023 piece, a representative for Banks at the time addressed select controversies, including backlash to shoots that switched the contestants' races.

"I want to be very clear: I, in no way, put my 'Top Models' in blackface. I'm a Black woman. I am proud. I love my people and the struggle that we have gone through continues, and the last thing that I would ever do is be a part of something that degraded my race," Banks said in a prior statement. "I'm sorry to anybody that watched *Top Model* and was offended by the pictures because they didn't understand the real story behind them or even if you did see the whole episode and you were still offended, I truly apologize because that is not my intention. My intention is to spread beauty and break down barriers."**

*Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model* is now streaming on Netflix. Watch Marcille's reaction in the video above.

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Source: Reality

Published: February 20, 2026 at 01:01AM on Source: PRIME TIME

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