ANTM Alum Says This Gesture Was Secret ‘F— You’ to Tyra Banks

Ambreal Williams is speaking out about her time on America’s Next Top Model.

Williams, 37, competed on cycle nine of ANTM, which aired in 2007. The season was hosted by Tyra Banks, who also served as a judge with Nigel Barker, J. Alexander and Twiggy. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in an article published July 29, Williams claimed that when she was eliminated in the season’s ninth episode, titled, “The Girl Who Starts to Lose Her Cool,” the then-19-year-old made a gesture that she and her castmates made up as a way to secretly say “f— you” to Banks, 51.

“We had an inside joke within the group,” Williams said. “It was a ‘f— you.’ So, when I was eliminated, you saw me [raise my hands] and walk off the stage.” Williams performed the gesture — where she lifted her arms over her head as if throwing a basketball — for the outlet, who confirmed she did the same one in the episode, causing some of her fellow contestants to laugh.

Williams said that before she was eliminated, she already felt unwelcome in the competition, saying she “figured the bulls— out right away.” In episode 6, Williams was set to be eliminated, but Ebony Morgan, who was also in the bottom two, decided to quit instead. 

Banks let her stay, but Williams was sure she would be sent home soon. “I knew I had a time limit. Once I was eliminated, they couldn’t eliminate me right away again,” she said. 

Then, in episode 8, the contestants filmed for an Enrique Iglesias music video, and during judges’ critiques, Banks called her “hoochie.” “But, once Tyra told me I was ‘hoochie,’ I was like, alright, babe. I’d already spoken to the girls. They were trying to get rid of me,” she said. Saleisha Stowers ultimately won the season. 

Despite the judges’ criticisms, Williams worked as a model after she left the show. “When I started modeling, I actually couldn’t mention that I was on the show,” Williams told EW. “After the fact, I lost a Wrangler’s campaign because I told them that I was on Top Model. I was supposed to be on Project Runway as a model [until] that day I told them I was on Top Model.”

“My agent used to get so mad at me, and I didn’t realize. So, I stopped telling people I was on Top Model and I started booking stuff because they didn’t know,” she said. “I knew that they were not showing my best photos [on the show] because I was getting booked [after the show].”

Still, Williams said she would return to the show for an All-Star season if one happened. “I had fun, I made some good friends. I don’t think Tyra even remembers me, with so many of us in this sorority,” she said. “But, I did learn how TV works and what goes on!”

Though America’s Next Top Model was a TV favorite (and aired 24 seasons between 2003 and 2018), the show has been criticized by many viewers and contestants for issues including the treatment of contestants, the promotion of rigid beauty standards and a now-infamous race-swapping challenge.

Banks addressed the controversy in a March speech at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards, where she was the first-ever Luminary Spotlight honoree

“Over 20 years ago, I created a show called America’s Next Top Model,” Banks said in part. “And you guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time when it didn’t exist; to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that?’ A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show?’ “

“Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb s—,” she said. “But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the Internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”