I won America’s Next Top Model but it was like prison – we didn’t even have privacy in the loo, producers removed doors

INDIA Gants, who won America’s Next Top Model, has shared the grim reality of what it was really like to film the TV show.

Not only did India Gants, 28, compare filming to living in a ‘prison’, but she also claimed that producers removed the doors from the toilets too.

The young woman was propelled into the spotlight after she competed on the Tyra Banks-led series in 2017, whereby she was crowned the winner. 

But now, the model has lifted the lid on the shocking realities of what it was actually like to participate in the beloved competition, and her experience was very different to what many fans might expect.

Posting on social media, India claimed that on top of having “no privacy”, contestants weren’t allowed to go outside unless it was for something related to the show.

Not only this, but she claimed that the models always had to be ‘escorted’ by a production member – even when walking from the house to the car to go to a photo shoot.

She also claimed that she was forced to sit inside a hotel room for 23 hours a day with “no human interaction” in the days before filming kicked off, admitting that the isolation almost drove her “crazy” and made her want to quit the show.

In a video shared on TikTok, the blonde-haired beauty claimed: “The hotel we had to stay at before filming was horrible.

“We just stared at the walls [all day] basically. We were by ourselves and the rooms were so small, you barely had room to move.”

India claimed that the room had a ‘janky TV’ with only two channels, and they weren’t allowed to bring anything like books or electronics, which she found mind-numbingly boring.

Not only was there “literally nothing to do”, as she claimed, but she explained that there was also “no way” for them to “communicate with the outside world”. 

She shared: “For one hour a day they’d pull us out for a personality test or to draw blood or to take photos or whatever they needed that day.

“It was literally like we were in prison. Even the meal situation, they would drop our food off outside the hotel room door, so you’d crack open the door, grab your food, and eat in your room alone. 

“I was going crazy. I was actually talking to myself in the mirror. Not in a funny way, I was having full-on conversations with myself in the bathroom mirror.”

India described it as “such a miserable experience” and although she considered quitting, she ultimately decided to stick it out.

Once the audition process was over and she was officially cast in the series, she moved into a home with the rest of the models.

There was really no privacy whatsoever, you just had to get used to using the bathroom in front of other people

India Gants

But according to the content creator, things didn’t get much easier there. 

In a follow-up clip, India slammed the lack of “privacy” in the abode, while claiming that there were no doors on the bathrooms.

She shared: “The bathrooms on America’s Next Top Model did not have doors, they had shower curtains covering the bathrooms and the toilet was just wide open in there.

“There was really no privacy whatsoever, you just had to get used to using the bathroom in front of other people.”

Despite this, she added: “If you really need privacy, like for number two, there was a bathroom in the confessional and that was where you did your private business.”

In other videos, India claimed that the models were not allowed to “leave the house” at all during the six weeks of filming, except for photo shoots, challenges, and other things related to the show. 

She dished: “You don’t have any freedom to take a walk or go to the mall or get your nails done or any of that stuff.

“You’re always escorted to and from the house by a production person. They take you from the house into the bus and from the bus into the venue and then take you directly back home afterwards.”

Whilst she expressed that it didn’t bother her that much, she claimed that other girls weren’t happy that they couldn’t get their “regular beauty maintenance things”, when they were “on a show that required them to look their best”.

Opening up about the “weird” experience, she continued: “It’s such a weird world, you are in this literal bubble during filming.

“We always talked about how if some significant thing was happening in the world, we wouldn’t have found out about it.”

It’s a TV show. They have to make good TV. It’s not a real modelling experience

India Gants

As well as this, India also revealed what really happened when you were booted out of the show.

It may come as a shock to many, but she claimed that you weren’t allowed to go home, and instead, were sent to what she called “the hotel of doom”.

She confessed: “You’re still not allowed to have your phone or books or other forms of media.

“You literally have to stay in the hotel for the whole rest of filming because if you went home people would know you got sent home and didn’t win. They don’t want any spoilers.

“So you go to this hotel and you just have to stay there. The girls told me they were occasionally allowed to go on a field trip, the production assistant would take them to go to eat at a restaurant or go to a shopping mall.”

As a result, India claimed to her followers that America’s Next Top Model was a “reality TV show before it was a modelling contest.”

She concluded: “Primarily, it’s a TV show. They have to make good TV. It’s not a real modelling experience.

“They are producing a TV show that has to get views. They have to make it interesting.”

Fabulous has contacted the production company behind America’s Next Top Model, 10 by 10 Entertainment, and Tyra Banks’ production company, for comment.