America's Next Top Model 'revoked' 100k prize money because winner had been sex trafficked
America’s Next Top Model has become the latest 00s reality show to face a reckoning after a tell-all documentary exposed some of its most controversial moments.
Between the controversial ‘blackface’ photoshoot and one of cycle two’s contestants coming forward about her being filmed being sexually assaulted whilst on the show, some of the craziest on-screen moments from the series have been totally reframed by the documentary.
Arguably one of the wildest stories about the show, however, is one that is not covered in the new Netflix documentary, with a winner of the show saying that she had her $100,000 prize money revoked because she was revealed to have been sex trafficked.
Angelea Preston was on multiple seasons of America’s Next Top Model, having first appeared in cycle 12 and 14, returning for an All Stars 17th season.
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Viewers of the series probably wouldn’t realise this, however, as the episode simply stated that the production team ‘learned information from Angelea that disqualifies her from the competition’.
What was not shown was her being announced the winner of the show prior to Lisa D’Amato being named the winner.
Speaking to Bustle in 2024, Angelea spoke about the experience of finding out she had won the show and the accompanying $100,000 contract, saying: “I screamed. I just could not believe it was me.
“I almost ran off the set. I was like ‘Are you serious?!,’ breaking the fourth wall and looking in the camera.
“I hugged the other girls, but at the same time I was like, ‘Bye, y’all! Peace out! Y’all can go! I just won, and my life is about to start!’”
It was later leaked that the reason she was disqualified was because she had told production she had briefly worked as an escort years before the show.
Whilst this would be a bizarre reason to disqualify someone anyway, she revealed in her interview with Bustle that she was trafficked.
After appearing in cycle 12 and 14, she described struggling to find work, with Top Model generally being something that modelling agents looked down upon.
She described how she was living in poverty in a poor neighbourhood in New York when a man in a luxury car pulled up next to her, convincing her to go on a date with him.
She was later offered the chance to go on dates with men in exchange for money and luxury items, with her being promised by the man in the car, who she referred to as T, that she wouldn’t need to have sex with them.
She later learned that this was actually expected of her and described multiple occasions in which she was assaulted if she tried to leave T or said she wasn’t having sex with her dates.
During this time, close friends of Angelea had contacted a cycle 14 winner, Krista White, who had contacted producers on the show and Tyra Banks herself to try and get help with the situation.
Though they never heard back, and she eventually escaped T after over a month. When she was being vetted for cycle 17, she was asked if she ‘ever did anything illegal’ to make money, and a producer even asked her ‘if she was being pimped’.
She denied this, as she said she was at ‘rock bottom’ from her time with T, but added: “To my understanding, [a producer] knew what happened, but she wasn’t going to say anything to anyone else… it was our little secret.”
Weeks after the finale was filmed, she was contacted by producers who said they’d ‘heard a rumour’ and encouraged her to be honest, which is when she came forward about her past.
Shortly after, she was told that Banks and executive producer Ken Mok had decided her title will be revoked and she would not be getting the $100,000 winner’s contract.
She added: “It was already traumatic going through the sex-work stuff, and now to add insult to injury, they were punishing me for the rest of my life.”
In a statement to Bustle at the time, Ken Mok said: “There’s really nothing I can add to Angelea’s story as this happened 10 years ago and it has already been reported on extensively.
“On a personal note, I thought Angelea was a wonderful addition to ANTM. She was talented and charismatic. … I wish her nothing but the best in her future.”
LADbible group has contacted representatives for Ken Mok, Tyra Banks, and Paramount for comment.
Topics: TV and Film, TV, Documentaries, Celebrity
Michael Slavin