Jay Manuel Reveals Whether Tyra Banks ‘Called’ Him After She Promised to Reach Out in ANTM Doc & if He’s Still ‘Open’ to Reconciling With Her
Jason Pham
Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel were friends long before America’s Next Top Model. Before he served as a Creative Director on America’s Next Top Model, Jay worked as a makeup artist and stylist for brands like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Victoria’s Secret, Revlon, and CoverGirl, as well as celebrities like Naomi Campbell, Angela Bassett, and Jennifer Lopez.
Manuel also worked as Banks‘ makeup artist, which is how the two formed a friendship and working relationship. When Banks was casting a creative director for her first season of America’s Next Top Model in 2003, she immediately called up Manuel.
In Netflix’s 2026 documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Manuel revealed that she and Banks fell out after Season 8 when she emailed Banks to tell her that he was leaving the show while thanking her for the opportunity. “She didn’t respond,” he said in the documentary. “It was probably the longest three days ever. And she ultimately wrote back just three words. ‘I am disappointed.’ After that email exchange, all communication just stopped. It should’ve been the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart, but that did not happen.”
Despite wanting to leave, Manuel agreed to return for Season 9 at the request of other executives, which is when he realized that his and Banks’ friendship had changed forever. “Tyra chose not to speak with me at all while the cameras were off. When they were on, she’d speak to me,” Manuel told People in February 2026. “After [trying to leave], I did cycle 9, which was … torture for me. I was so broken by the end of that cycle because of the mental torture of what was going on.”
Where are Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel now?
When asked about her fallout with Manuel on Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Banks refused to discuss it, telling producers that she “should call” Manuel and deal with their feud personally.
In his interview with People, Manuel confirmed that Banks never called him after they filmed the documentary in 2025, and he still hasn’t heard from her. “I never got that phone call,” he said. “I don’t think I’m getting a phone call. She’s got my number.”
Manuel also shared that the last time he saw Banks was in 2017, five years after he was fired from America’s Next Top Model with Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker, when they were both at BeautyCon, where the two had a “really nice conversation.” “Other than that, we’ve had no communication of any sort, text, email, anything,” he said. “Tyra and I were close, and when we were in New York shooting, or even in L.A. shooting, she’d be at my house or I’d be at her house, and we would really download. But at the same time, and she knows this to be true, the things that are those really, really trusted important things that she has said to me, I will never repeat. I will forever honor my relationship with her in the past.”
Despite Banks never calling him, Manuel confessed that he’s still “very open” to talking to her. “I’m in a healed place,” he said. “I wish her no ill will.”
How did Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel meet?
During an interview with Interview magazine 2026, Manuel confirmed that he met Tyra was her makeup artist which is when she encouraged him as a creative director. “I was doing a lot of art direction and post-production. I was brought in to sit down with retouchers for major beauty campaigns that I was working on because they wanted my eye. They wanted me to say, ‘What can we push? What looks real, what doesn’t?'” he said. “This was the early days of photoshop when there weren’t a lot of tools. So I was retouching Revlon campaigns, doing makeup, as well as doing celebrity clients and editorials. And this was at a time where you were not allowed to be a multi-hyphenate. Tyra was my client and one of the first people who empowered me by saying, ‘Don’t let someone force you into one box.'”
He also explained how his and Tyra’s working relationship shifted as early as Season 4 on America’s Next Top Model. “By cycle four, there was no more of that intimate Tyra and I coming up with creative ideas. There were big meetings and there were all these asks,” he said. “Then there was the famous race-swapping shoot. I remember my heart dropping out. I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this.’ Because of my last name, people think I’m Spanish. I’m actually biracial and my parents are from South Africa and grew up under apartheid. I remember calling my mom and saying, ‘I don’t want to do this shoot. How can we put someone in blackface?’ Tyra told me she was doing it from a place of empowerment and said, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t wear this, but you have to go to work,’ because I asked to be excused from that shoot and they would not allow it. People thought as the creative director, it was my choice. I had to walk around and wear it. And as a person of color with an extended family who still lives in South Africa, it was not easy for me, and I just didn’t know how long I could survive in that environment.”
While he and Tyra don’t speak, Manuel confessed that he still has respect for Tyra. “I can answer your questions. Even though we don’t speak, I have a level of understanding and respect for her history. I think the thing that instantly connected me to her, initially, even when we first met and started developing our relationship I recognized a real vulnerability with her and this place of pain. And, as a Black model in this industry, recognizing what she’s had to go through, and what she’s shared with me, I will keep her confidence, even though we don’t speak anymore. I’ve been given the gift of trust with her, and even though there was a divide, I can understand where she comes from and some of her reactions,” he said.
