America's Next Top Model star who says alleged sex assault was filmed without intervention faced further exploitation
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
A former America’s Next Top Model contestant has revealed what happened after the infamous 'cheating' scandal.
Netflix’s latest exposé, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, has explored some of the darker aspects of what happened on ANTM.
Out of 24 cycles between 2003 and 2018, Shandi Sullivan featured on cycle two after her boyfriend at the time encouraged her to apply. As a 21-year-old working in Walgreens in Kansas at the time, Shandi said in the documentary that she didn’t feel ‘pretty’ and ‘that ugly duckling to the swan, that was my story’.
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However, during a night in Milan, an incident occurred between Shandi and a male model, with the former contestant being filmed kissing in a hot tub and later in a bedroom.
In Reality Check, Shandi revisited that moment, alleging that she'd been sexually assaulted and was 'hammered' at the time,
adding: "I just remember like little bits and pieces."
What happened to Shandi Sullivan on America’s Next Top Model?
It all began when Shandi and her fellow contestants took a trip to Milan and were driven around on Vespas by a few male models, whom they invited back to their accommodation for wine and dinner.
The 43-year-old said that she had 'two bottles of wine by herself' and not much to eat, adding: "I remember getting in the hot tub. I remember April, Mercedes getting in the hot tub.
"And then I just remember the guy looking at me, and I looked at him. And I was pretty drunk at that point. Everything kind of after that is just a blur."
Shandi said that she vaguely remembers kissing him; however, she further claimed that she 'didn’t even feel sex happening' as she was 'blacked out', but 'knew it was happening'.
Shandi added: “I remember him on top of me. I was blacked out. No one did anything to stop it. And it all got filmed, all of it."
The next morning, she says she woke up and sobbed as everything 'flooded over me', wanting to go home, but producers allegedly refused this.
Shandi claimed she was initially denied a phone, but she was permitted to call her boyfriend so long as it could be filmed, which showed her telling him that she'd slept with someone, leading to him calling her a ‘b****’.
According to the former model, two crew members were present, who then said to her as she lay on the floor in a 'foetal position crying': "We’re really, really sorry that we had to film that."
She added: "They just knew this isn’t right — why are we filming this?"
However, it didn't stop there: the cameras also followed her to the doctor's and showed her confronting the man to ask if he'd used protection.
Creative director and host, Jay Manuel, also recalled Shandi being followed to the doctors, as he said: “I mean, production was responsible for her. Now, could they have sent her to the doctor in privacy?
"But it’s reality, so now they’re going to cover it. Poor girl.”
When asked if production should have intervened, Shandi responded: “I think after getting out of the hot tub and whatever happened after that, I think they should have f****** been like, 'Alright, this has gone too far. We get it. We got to pull her out of this'.”
What have the judges said about Shandi's story?
When asked about Shandi's experience in the documentary, host Tyra Banks, who also addressed the controversial 'blackface' photoshoot in the docuseries, said that she remembered her story: “I do remember her story. It’s a little difficult for me to talk about production, because that’s not my territory.”
Meanwhile, Manuel also said he remembered the incident, adding: "I know the girls, they were doing their evening hanging with the guys. We were off. And then we got word Shandi's having sex in the shower with the guy. I was, like, 'Wait, what?'
"And the rule on Top Model was, if you went into a bathroom alone, a camera could not follow you in. But of course, when she went into the shower, she was technically not alone. So, the cameras went in and they captured it.
"I don’t know whose decision it was, but as producers do, this was a story now and we’re going to see it all the way through.”
Ken Mok, who was an executive producer, said they had ‘treated Top Model as a documentary', adding: "And we told the girls that. We would go over the rules.
"There's going to be cameras with you 24/7, day in and day out, and they're going to cover everything — the good, the bad, and everything in between.
“No matter what happens while you're on camera, we're going to document all of that.”
Mok went on to say that they 'scaled back that scene in a significant way' after he saw it in post-production, adding: "That was, for good or bad, one of the most memorable moments of Top Model."
Tyra also added: “I’m not head of story, that’s Ken Mok. But I did become a master editor. It's important for people to know that we didn't put everything on TV."
LADbible Group has previously contacted Paramount for comment.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: TV, Documentaries, Netflix
Britt Jones