“ANTM” star recalls 'begging' producer to stop asking questions, says answer about suicide aired as her reaction to losing

Cycle 24 runner-up Jeana Turner alleged that the show aired her emotional answer about suicidal thoughts after a shot of her losing the competition.

America's Next Top Model cycle 24 runner-up Jeana Turner alleges that the show's production team aired one of her confessional interview answers about suicidal thoughts to appear as if it was her reaction to losing the competition to Kyla Coleman.

The model made the accusation on Tuesday night's season finale of Vice TV's Dark Side of Reality TV docuseries, which saw her allege that she endured multiple hours of overwhelming questions from a producer of the Tyra Banks-hosted show that had her pleading for the interview to stop.

“I was in an interview room for almost seven hours by myself with three people," Turner, who was 24 at the time of ANTM cycle 24's production, said on the Vice TV series. "I was begging her to stop asking me questions about being suicidal. They ended up using the response of me crying saying, 'I don’t want to talk about it anymore' as my response for losing the competition, and that’s not at all what happened."

The ANTM cycle 24 finale, which aired on VH1 (the show's final network home, after first airing on UPN and later the CW) in April 2018 under the title "Next Level Fierce," saw Turner return to the competition after being eliminated on the prior installment. She contended for the title (which, to date, remains the final one in ANTM's history) against Khrystyana Kazakova, Shanice Carroll, and Coleman, and eventually made it to the final round before Coleman was revealed as the winner.

Shortly after Coleman's crowning, Turner extended her arm toward her fellow competitor and gave her a soft, "Congratulations."

Later, in a confessional, Turner is shown saying, "Always first runner-up. I wanted to win America's Next Top Model. I thought I could do it," before the show cut back to a shot of Banks congratulating Coleman on set as Turner walks away in the background. The show then returned to a shot of Turner in a confessional, where she tearfully lowers her head and says, "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Related: America's Next Top Model alum says Tyra Banks show made models audition while touching like 'a centipede' in cramped room

Elsewhere in Dark Side of Reality TV, Turner, who has alopecia, also reflected on the emotional process of shaving off her hair on the show's fan-favorite makeover episode, after grappling with the hair-loss condition for most of her life.

“To be a girl and not have hair, you see how people start treating you differently and what people say, is really intense,” Turner said on the docuseries, adding that she felt pressured to talk about her alopecia on ANTM. "I was crying so hard they had to turn the cameras off. I just kept freaking out and I wasn’t ready for it. I wouldn’t even run down my driveway to my mailbox to pick up my mail if I didn’t have my hair on. I really wasn’t ready for it to be shaven like that on TV, and then to be told, ‘Walk around like that and you have to believe it’s beautiful.’ What if I didn’t? I obviously didn’t think it was beautiful. I was covering it with wigs."

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Related: ANTM cycle 9 winner Saleisha Stowers addresses controversy over pre-show work: 'I was within the guidelines'

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for producers Ken Mok and Laura Fuest Silva, a well as to representatives for Banks and the network for comment. In May 2023, in response to other allegations about the show's editing process, a representative for Banks told EW that, "in the editing process, there's a team of storytellers who decide which stories to tell that does not include Banks. Footage is then cut and narrowed down before Banks enters with a team of people for review. Cuts are then sent to the network and undergo a series of notes and edits before finalizing. The network has final sign-off on all episodes."

Many Top Model contestants have spoken out against the show in the past, including 14 models who reflected on their experience on the show for EW's 20th anniversary oral history of the program's wildest moments, ranging from several models addressing controversial challenges that saw them painting their skin dark colors to portray different races, to alum Angelea Preston's account of allegedly being stripped of her title due to past sex work initially winning the all-star cycle 17 edition of the show.

Cycle 4 contestant Kahlen Rondot reflected on a notable moment that saw her compete in a photo challenge set inside a graveyard shortly after she learned that a close friend back home had died — an instance many fans speculated was meant to draw an emotional reaction out of the model.

Related: Tyra Banks has no current plans to bring America's Next Top Model back

A spokesperson for ANTM host and executive producer Banks explained to EW at the time that "the shoot had been planned beforehand, and, as is standard with any production of this magnitude, it would have been near impossible to pull off an entire shoot change, especially if you factor in all of the location scouting, permit requirements, etc. that go into filming a competition series."

In response to the 20th anniversary oral history, Mok declined to comment on individual instances, though he told EW through a representative: "As this story has been reported on numerous times over the last 20 years, I have nothing left to add except that I have nothing but respect for everyone who has appeared on the show. I wish all of [the contestants] nothing but health and happiness in their future endeavors."

To date, ANTM has aired 24 cycles across three networks, though the program has not formally been canceled despite its last new episode airing in 2018. In an interview with EW that year for her role in Life-Size 2, Banks revealed that she considered bringing ANTM back for cycle 25 — which she indicated would be its last, and could even be the franchise's second all-star cycle featuring fan-favorite contestants from previous editions. However, earlier this year, EW learned that Banks had no current plans to bring the show back for new episodes.