In a new interview, the 'America's Next Top Model' judge claims that the British beauty 'seemed like she just didn't want me there and was doing everything in her power to make me go away.'
- Jul 22, 2019
AceShowbiz - It's been more than a decade since Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell were feuding with each other, with the latter accusing the British beauty of bullying her in her early days of her modeling career. Now, Tyra has opened up about their feud in an interview with Wall Street Journal, reflecting on the pain and fear she felt in relation to her senior.
Setting things straight that what happened between her and Naomi wasn't a rivalry, the "America's Next Top Model" judge said, "I'm very sensitive to that word because a rivalry is with two equals, whereas one was very dominant, and I was just some new girl that got on a plane from Paris." She added, "I had a very painful early days in Paris...people didn't know I was going home crying my eyes out because a woman that I was looking up to seemed like she just didn't want me there and was doing everything in her power to make me go away."
While young Tyra didn't understand why she got that kind of treatment from Naomi, as time went by she finally understood that the 49-year-old stunner "was reacting to an industry that was all about a token." The former "America's Got Talent" host said, "But when I come on the scene, 'Naomi look out because there's a black girl who's going to take your spot. Only one spot available."
Tyra and Naomi publicly reconciled back in 2005, when the latter was invited to Tyra's then-talk show "The Tyra Banks Show". At the time, the supermodels spent the entire episode discussing their feud, which Tyra said initially began with the media pitting the two together.
Naomi has mostly remained tight-lipped on her conflict with Tyra, but she once praised her fellow model in a 2013 interview with ELLE. "If you ask me about Tyra Banks... I'm proud of her as a woman of color. She's given girls opportunity, and God bless her," she gushed.
