Tyra banks continue to receive criticism for her “America’s Next Top Model” reign as viewers re-post old show clips.
Last week, a former contestant added fuel to the fire when she claimed that contestants only received $40 a day to film the show.
Toccara Jones spoke to TMZ about Sarah Hartstone’s $40 claim and says it’s what they signed up for.
“This is the modeling world,” Toccara said. “[Tyra] didn’t create this. She just showed y’all [what it’s like] and she became the face of it.” She added that the recent backlash only further cements the show’s impact on the culture, adding that the reality show was also a competition.
“The whole purpose of a contest is to win a prize,” she emphasized. “It’s for the exposure… And no, we don’t get residuals or anything like that, but we did sign a contract and they did feed us and we were able to buy our own personal items if we needed to.”
“The $40 was per diem. So you actually didn’t get paid. Technically, no one got paid because then if someone got paid there could be legal issues about, you know, a winner or who got paid how much. It could have been a whole big drama if people getting paid to be on a contest.”
Toccara was a contestant on the show’s third season, where she finished in seventh place.
She still has love for her former modeling mentor.
“I love Tyra,” she shared. “She’s still thriving. She still doing good and she’s going to continue to be doing good and people are still talking about the franchise and here we are still speaking about it.”
Banks has not addressed the recent backlash. She recently celebrated her 48th birthday with a body-positive swimsuit pics showing off all of her natural curves.
