The controversies of &34;America's Next Top Model&34; are explored in a new Netflix docuseries. Where is Shandi Sullivan now? Here's what happened to the America's Next Top Model finalist The controversies of &34;America's Next Top Model&34; are explored in a new Netflix docuseries. By Allison DeGrushe :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/allisondegrusheEWbiophotoe5f8e89253c84b7085a43c502a3051a4.jpg) Allison DeGrushe Allison DeGrushe is a timely SEO writer at . She has been working at since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Distractify. EW's editorial guidelines February 17, 2026 1:41 p.m.

The controversies of "America's Next Top Model" are explored in a new Netflix docuseries.

Where is Shandi Sullivan now? Here's what happened to the America's Next Top Model finalist

The controversies of "America's Next Top Model" are explored in a new Netflix docuseries.

By Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe is a timely SEO writer at **. She has been working at * *since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Distractify.

EW's editorial guidelines

February 17, 2026 1:41 p.m. ET

Shandi Sullivan on 'America's Next Top Model'; Sullivan on 'Reality Check'. Credit:

John P. Filo/CBS; Netflix

- Shandi Sullivan finished third on cycle 2 of *America's Next Top Model*.

- Now, she admits the show left her feeling "really broken."

- Sullivan left modeling and now works with animals.

Following the breakout success of its first season (or "cycle"), *America's Next Top Model* returned in 2004 with 12 new aspiring models seeking a foothold in the industry. One of them was Shandi Sullivan, a Walgreens employee from Kansas City.

Despite being new to modeling, Sullivan made it all the way to the finals. Her journey, though, was rife with drama, which was breathlessly captured on camera. On *Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model*, a Netflix docuseries about the reality competition's complicated legacy, Sullivan gets candid about her time on the show and the traumatic incident in Milan that still haunts her to this day.

It's been years since we last checked in with Sullivan, so here's a look at her time on *ANTM *and where she is today.

Who is Shandi Sullivan?

Shandi Sullivan on 'America's Next Top Model'.

During her time on *ANTM*, Sullivan spoke candidly about her childhood and complicated relationship with her parents, saying she always felt like "the black sheep" in her family.

Sullivan decided to move out when she was 18. She bought a plane ticket and didn't tell her parents where she was going. On the way out, she ran into her dad, who told her to "have a nice life."

She ended up in Kansas City, where she worked as a service clerk at Walgreens. After seeing an ad for *ANTM,* she went to the casting call. The rest is history.

On the show, she got a full makeover, including a striking platinum blonde hairstyle that, for the first time, made her feel pretty and confident. Sullivan finished in third place and had her sights set on winning… until Milan.

What happened to Shandi Sullivan in Milan?

Shandi Sullivan on 'America's Next Top Model'.

When the cycle 2 models arrived in Milan, some Italian locals ferried them to a series of "go-sees," an industry term for introductory meetings between models, agents, and designers. Later, the drivers joined the models at their apartment for dinner and drinks. "We were just talking, drinking," Sullivan recalls on *Reality Check*. "I don't think I'd eaten anything at all or had any sleep."

The party eventually moved to a hot tub, where an intoxicated Sullivan, who had a boyfriend back in Kansas City, kissed one of the locals. "Everything kind of after that is just a blur," she says, her voice growing emotional. "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."

Sullivan also spoke of the encounter in a 2023 interview with **. "I was really drunk, falling down. If I would've seen me out with that dude in [public], I would've been like, 'Okay, grab [her], you're way too drunk to even know what's going on.'"

She continued, "We had sex for two seconds, that was it, and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was like, 'Oh s---. It wasn't safe, and I wanted to make sure he was [clean]. They ended up [filming] me talking to the guy, like, 'Do you have STDs? When was the last time you were tested?' Thinking about that now, it's so bizarre. Like, this is my life, it's not a scripted thing."**

'ANTM' returning for cycle 25, Tyra Banks says: 'My work is not done'

Tyra Banks shuts down question about estranged friend Jay Manuel's 'ANTM' firing

In the doc, Sullivan alleges that producers wouldn't let her speak to her boyfriend, Eric, until she began threatening to leave the competition. Many viewers likely remember the heated phone call that ensued, with Eric calling her a "stupid b----" while she breaks down in tears on the floor.

According to Sullivan, the crew told her they regretted filming the conversation. "They just knew that this isn't right. Like, why are we filming this?" Sullivan says on *Reality Check*.

"That was, for good or bad, one of the most memorable moments in *Top Model,*" says executive producer Ken Mok in the docuseries. (Mok declined to comment about the incident to EW.)

Previously, a spokesperson for *ANTM* creator, host, and executive producer Tyra Banks said the supermodel "played no role in the events that occurred this night. Everyone, including production, was surprised to find out what had transpired."**

Sullivan addressed the incident in an Instagram post following the doc's Feb. 16 premiere. "At the age of 43, I continue to struggle with it; always smiling," she wrote. "That's why I took this opportunity. Knowing that Tyra didn't have control over my narrative, that the director and producers here had my back... that's why I did it. I did it for me. Because I mattered and I still do! The love I have felt today has been immense."**

Did Shandi Sullivan and her boyfriend break up?

Shandi Sullivan on 'America's Next Top Model'.

Yes, Sullivan and Eric eventually split, but not after trying to work through their issues.

"We tried. We really tried," she says in the documentary. "He moved with me to New York after the show. But it would suck when I'd be walking with Eric down the street and somebody would recognize me and call me a slut to my face. Or a cheating whore, with Eric standing right next to me. That was fun. It made me hate myself."**

Where is Shandi Sullivan now?

Shandi Sullivan in 'Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model' docuseries.

Sullivan currently works with animals and, as she says on *Reality Check*, dreams of living on a farm and having a "sanctuary" for various critters. She also started a Brooklyn-based jewelry business called Dream Meow Corner and hosts a podcast about horror movies, *Urn Fulla Popcorn*, with Timmy Williams of *The Whitest Kids U' Know. *

Though she eventually left the modeling industry, she did do some post-*ANTM* shoots with Nigel Barker, a former judge and photographer on the show.**

"Shandi and I collaborated on a few shoots after *ANTM*, she was always a very special unique person," Barker wrote in an Instagram post highlighting his photos of her. "Watching the new Netflix doc *Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model *you get an extremely raw and true behind the scenes look at Shandi's story and it's clear the show could and should have done much better. Shandi will always be a rockstar."**

Hulu; Shandi Sullivan photographed by Tanner Abel and Nicholas Needham

On *Reality Check*, Sullivan recalls feeling "really broken" after her cycle of *ANTM*. She'd hoped to land at a "top modeling agency," but ended up returning to her job at Walgreens.

She did, however, make a few appearances on *The Tyra Banks Show*, during which Banks aired footage of the Milan incident. Sullivan can be seen closing her eyes to avoid watching it.

In both the documentary and in a previous interview with EW, Sullivan claims that she asked producers to not show the footage, as she'd never seen it and didn't want to. "I almost got up in the middle of her f---ing showing it and left, but I was like, don't do that, that's what they want; they want a reaction out of you, and they've got enough," she told us.

Banks' spokesperson previously told EW that Banks "was not personally approached about this request and would never deliberately air a moment if someone specifically asked her not to. This goes against her beliefs."**

Where can I watch Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model?

*Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model* is now streaming on Netflix.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter*.****

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Reality"

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Source: Reality

Published: February 18, 2026 at 07:01AM on Source: RED MAG

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