Eva Marcille 'Gobsmacked' Watching Netflix 'Reality Check' Doc

After Netflix dropped its explosive docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model on Feb. 16, viewers immediately began speculating about whether there was lingering tension between Tyra Banks and Cycle 3 winner Eva Marcille, as she wasn’t interviewed for the series.

Now, Marcille is sharing her side of the story.

Eva says she didn’t know about the allegations on the show until after her win.

Appearing on CBS Mornings on Thursday, Feb. 19, the former winner of America’s Next Top Model addressed the three-part documentary for the first time. She admitted she was blindsided by many of the controversies highlighted in the series.

Eva Marcille said her initial reaction was curiosity; she was “amazed” and even contacted former creative director Jay Manuel for insight. But that feeling didn’t last for long.

“I watched it and after I watched it, I was gobsmacked,” she told CBS hosts Gayle King, Nate Burleson and Vladimir Duthiers. “I was in awe. I told Jay, my mouth was wide open. To be a part of a club, and not know what’s going on in the club is crazy.”

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Now 41, Marcille — who competed under her maiden name, Eva Pigford — said she was never invited to participate in the project.

“They didn’t ask me,” she said. “It was very surprising.”

Although she appears briefly in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, including a mention from Banks highlighting her post-show success, the series largely shifts its focus away from winners. Instead, it revisits the long-running franchise’s most controversial moments and examines the emotional toll production allegedly took on contestants and staff.

Former participants claimed they were body-shamed, racially profiled and bullied by judges. The documentary revisits infamous challenges, including one involving blackface and another in which a contestant was asked to reenact the trauma of her mother being shot. Some viewers said watching the show contributed to eating disorders, while two former stars described painful dental procedures with lasting consequences.

Marcille said she had no idea such experiences were unfolding and described herself as “amazingly horrified” by the allegations.

Among the most disturbing accounts came from Cycle 2 runner-up Shandi Sullivan, who revisited the widely publicized episode in which she appeared to cheat on her boyfriend with an Italian model during a drunken night on camera. In the documentary, she alleges she was actually sexually assaulted.

“Horrible. Horrible,” Marcille said of the revelation.

Marcille says she believes the production team behind America’s Next Top Model encouraged the drama.

While she maintained she was unaware of what was happening behind the scenes at the time, Marcille acknowledged that producers and judges “absolutely” helped cultivate that environment.

“That environment could not exist without producers aiding and abetting what was going on,” she said, pointing to her own reality TV experience on The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip. “I don’t know what is going on in someone’s life unless the producers tell me. It’s a part of how this thing works.”

Reflecting on her time on Top Model, Marcille noted how young she and her fellow contestants were. Despite earning the nickname “Eva the Diva” after clashing with other competitors, she said her focus was singular and that she was determined to win. She also pointed out that she made history as “ the shortest girl” of Cycle 3.

“The idea of a Black girl and this short in the modeling business, it’s unheard of. It will never happen,” she explained. “We were kids trying to find our dreams realized and actualized by a woman who believed could do it for us,” she said of Banks later. “And if she could see it in us, then the world could see it in us because the world sees it in her. So it was just a TV show to win a competition.”

More than two decades later, Marcille said her Top Model victory–-and the controversy that some of the show stirred—continues to follow her, even as she’s built an extensive acting résumé with projects including All the Queen’s Men and the upcoming film Pushed Off a Plane and Survived.

“I had no idea. I have been asked about Tyra for 21 years,” she said. “No matter what project I’m doing, what I’m involved in, somehow Top Model finds its way in my interview. I’ve done 154 projects since Top Model. It’s been 21 years.”

Still, she stressed her gratitude for the show that launched her career.

“Thanks to Top Model, though,” she said. “What I will say is I will never fail to thank Tyra. What Tyra set out to do in this business, I will always say — and especially for Top Model, initially — she set out to change the world; to change what the modeling industry looked like, sounded like, felt like and expected. And she did that for me.”

When asked if Tyra should continue to apologize and take accountability for some of the harm caused on the show, Marcille said firmly:

“An apology to the person that you’ve wronged is only as good as they could appreciate it. And so for the young girls that were sexually assaulted, for the young girls that now have eating disorders or look at themselves and never feel beautiful…there is no sorry I think that’s big enough to truly fill and heal that kind of hurt.”

Have you seen Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model yet? Thoughts?

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