Two decades after she won America’s Next Top Model, Yoanna House is finally ready to tell all.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, it was highly exploitative,” House, 45, told host Kevin Fallon on Obsessed: The Podcast. “The situation was sometimes unnerving.”
House, who won the show’s second cycle in 2004 when she was just 23, never publicly discussed her “humiliating” tenure on the show, or even talked about it with many of her friends. But as the new documentary, Dirty Rotten Scandals: America’s Next Top Model, is set to premiere this Wednesday night on E!, the former model is opening up about her experience on the scandalous reality show.
“Humiliating women was something that people tuned into and wanted to watch,” House said, acknowledging that producers steered the show towards sensationalism. “So, they had their storylines, and we had our living arrangements that were highly difficult to navigate.”
House described the harsh living conditions the competitors faced, which included locked windows, no phone access, food that would “magically disappear” during shoots, and minimal sleep.
“Even judging night was hours and hours and hours, and we weren’t allowed to leave to use the restroom,” she added. “Wearing high heels and just being kind of in this fishbowl of subjective criticism—it was a strange time for sure."
“I think part of the exploitiveness is that you realize that the ones in charge are making the money,” House said. “And I think that’s kind of what I’ve taken from it, in hindsight, that there wasn’t anyone really looking out for us.”
Even the photoshoots, which appeared glamorous on TV, put the contestants in compromising conditions.
“Going back, there were a couple of shoots that made me highly uncomfortable,” House said, citing the first week’s shoot that involved both body paint and nude male models.
“I was uncomfortable with how much scrutiny I was already receiving about my body, and then to be having to walk around naked in a room full of not only production, but then fashion photographers, styling—it was difficult," House said.
Even so, House believed that winning the show would bring glory and launch her modeling career. The post-win glow, she said, quickly vanished.
“It was really exciting to see that I had won the winning shot. And then we pack up, we go home. And I was home for six months, still being a nanny,” House said.
Afterwards, the Cycle 2 winner recalled having to turn down opportunities because of her contract with the show’s creator, Tyra Banks.
“I was owned by Tyra for one year,” House recalled. “I wasn’t able to accept certain jobs because I was on hold by Tyra.”
She said she didn’t receive a single phone call from Banks, let alone any guidance or mentorship, after the show.
House described that despite being contractually obligated to appear at red carpets, she was forced to foot the bill for outfits, makeup, and transportation.
“I was getting billed and then going to the red carpet and seeing Tyra and then wondering why I had to afford the look, the hair, the makeup,” House said, noting that she was at one point ”tens of thousands in debt" due to the red carpet appearances.
“Tyra said that she was gonna take care of press looks and manage the girl. That never happened,” House said. “And I never complained about it.”
House’s new documentary, Dirty Rotten Scandals: America’s Next Top Model, premieres on E! on Mar. 11.
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