Former ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Contestant Claims ‘A Girl Fainted Every Week’ on the Show

According to America’s Next Top Model alum Sarah Hartshorne, a lot went down unshown when it comes to the Tyra Banks-produced TV show.

Hartshorne, who competed on cycle (a.k.a. season) 9 of ANTM, was one of several former contestants who spoke about their experience on the modeling competition show during the Tuesday, November 19, season finale of Vice’s Dark Side of Reality TV. While contestants were occasionally shown to pass out during a challenge, Hartshorne claimed that “a girl fainted every week.”

She alleged: “They warned us, they were like, ‘Don’t lock your knees!’ I was like, ‘These skinny bitches, they’re fainting!’ Then, 10 hours later I was like, ‘I’m fainting!’”

Hartshorne cited the cast’s fainting spells to a lack of food and the pressure to lose weight during filming, a struggle she particularly felt as a plus-size model.

“The reason I was losing weight was, A, I was stressed, but also that I was trying to save money because we weren’t getting paid,” she shared. “So, I was only trying to eat very little and very cheap food.”

During cycle 9, which aired in 2007, Hartshorne’s costar Heather Kuzmich famously got light-headed while the contestants filmed an Enrique Iglesias music video. Kuzmich was given an oxygen mask while the rest of the cast continued the challenge. (Kuzmich ultimately came in fifth place, while Hartshorne landed in eighth.)

While host and executive producer Banks, 50, once fake fainted to introduce a challenge about acting during cycle 6, cycle 4 contestant Rebecca Epley passed out for real, falling back onto the floor while receiving feedback from the judges.

Throughout the show’s 24-season run, competitors also experienced dehydration, hospitalization, hypothermia and other injuries. On the Dark Side of Reality TV finale, cycle 24 runner-up Jeana Turner also alleged that a clip of her discussing suicide was edited to make it appear she was talking about the competition.

“I was in an interview room for almost seven hours by myself with three people,” Turner claimed. “I was begging her to stop asking me questions about being suicidal. They ended up using the response of me crying saying, ‘I don’t want to talk about it anymore’ as my response for losing the competition, and that’s not at all what happened.”

ANTM has faced criticism over the years for its treatment of the models, controversial challenges and diversity and inclusion efforts. “Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you,” Banks wrote via X in May 2020 in response to fan backlash. “Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs.”

Later that year, Banks admitted that there were aspects of the show she and the show’s crew “messed up” on. “I was trying to push boundaries but was also torn to try to make sure that these girls could work, so it was a balance,” she said during a September 2020 interview on The Tamron Hall Show. “It was like, ‘Oh, break beauty barriers,’ but yeah, I can break them all I want on the show, but they’ll graduate from the show, and they won’t work. So, it was this awful push and pull that we all had.”