The fashion mogul opened up in a candid podcast interview about her faded friendship with Tyra Banks
Kimora Lee Simmons has a lot of history with America’s Next Top Model — and apparently, not all of it made it into the new documentary. The fashion mogul and former ANTM judge sat down for a candid podcast interview recently, pulling back the curtain on two subjects that fans of the franchise have long been curious about: her unexplained absence from the retrospective documentary and the quiet unraveling of her once deeply personal friendship with Tyra Banks.
Left out of a show she helped build
Simmons did not hide her surprise at being excluded from the documentary, which revisits the legacy and controversies of the long-running modeling competition. As one of the show’s original judges and someone who was present at its creation, she expected to be part of the conversation. Instead, she found herself watching from the outside without ever receiving an invitation to participate.
She described her reaction honestly — not with bitterness, but with a genuine sense of bewilderment. For someone who was there from the beginning and played a visible role in shaping the show’s early identity, being passed over for a project built on that very history was not something she had anticipated.
A friendship that quietly faded
Perhaps more revealing than the documentary snub was what Simmons shared about her relationship with Banks. The two women were once genuinely close — close enough that Banks became godmother to some of Simmons’ children. They built ANTM together from the ground up and for a time were a tight-knit team navigating the fashion and entertainment world side by side.
That closeness, however, has not survived the passage of time. Simmons acknowledged that she and Banks have not spoken in a very long time, and the warmth that once defined their relationship has largely given way to distance. She did not point to a single dramatic falling out or assign blame for the drift — just a quiet acknowledgment that things between them are not what they once were.
It is the kind of friendship fade that happens often in high-pressure industries where careers pull people in different directions and the shared projects that once kept them connected eventually come to an end. Still, given how foundational their bond was to the creation of one of reality television’s most influential franchises, the distance carries a certain weight.
Acknowledging the show’s complicated legacy
Simmons also addressed the controversies that the documentary examines. ANTM has faced significant criticism over the years for moments that, by today’s standards, are widely viewed as harmful — from the treatment of contestants to specific challenges and comments that have not aged well. Simmons did not deflect from any of it. She acknowledged that some of what occurred during the show’s run was genuinely difficult and reflected a moment in the industry that many people have since reckoned with publicly.
Her willingness to sit with that discomfort rather than minimize it added a layer of honesty to the interview that went beyond the headline revelations about the documentary and her friendship with Banks.
A door left slightly open
Despite the distance between her and Banks and her exclusion from the current project, Simmons did not close the door entirely on future involvement with the franchise. When the subject came up, she left open the possibility of returning in some capacity down the line — a response that was deliberately noncommittal but enough to give fans of the original era something to hold onto.
Whether that possibility becomes reality likely depends on factors beyond either woman’s current public statements. For now, Simmons appears to be at peace with where things stand — even if where things stand is a long way from where they once began.