Though reports accompanying her filing the lawsuit last year noted that she'd worked as an escort for "about a year," she now says it was "a stupid decision that lasted a month. Looking back in anger , however, Angelea remembers Tyra as "like a stranger" during filming, someone who'd only show up just before the cameras started rolling to make OTT fake pleasantries and toss out illogical advice during elimination ceremonies like cookies except see above re: no food.
Being on Top Model changed her life, Angelea acknowledges — but for the worse. And while this is a disconcertingly common complaint from reality TV participants, particularly the more controversial ones, in her case it really seems there's more at hand than sour grapes.
She hopes to rally more former contestants behind her cause, because "people need to know what's really going on behind the scenes. I'm not scared of Tyra — after everything you've done to me. I'm not scared of you at all. Far from launching her career as a model America's Next Top Model has, according to Angelea, destroyed any hope she might have of making it in the industry — branding her an escort and, she believes, rendering her all but unbookable. It is all a far cry from the hopes Angelea harbored when she accepted producers' invitation to audition for Cycle 17 All Stars season.
In fact she had hoped that the second chance at the show in which she had previously placed in the top four, would be a redemption of sorts.
She explained: 'I couldn't work after cycle 14 because of how I was portrayed. People viewed me as ghetto and a bitch, impossible to work with. They recognized me from the show and they didn't want to even look at me. Says Angelea, 'I couldn't work after cycle 14 because of how I was portrayed. They recognized me from the show and they didn't want to even look at me'. I didn't know what to do.
I was in a big city and it was just rejection on top of rejection on top of rejection. I couldn't book a job to save my life. You have these 15 minutes of fame but you can't capitalize on them. It was a situation which, Angelea said, saw her make a decision she regrets to this day and accept work as an escort.
Angelea insisted that her experience as an escort lasted barely one month and did not overlap with her taking part in America's Next Top Model. She admitted: 'I was in a very, very tough spot. I did some things for money that I'm not proud of. It was escorting. I had to survive. I had no money. I had no income. According to Angelea a concerned friend contacted America's Next Top Model production company telling them that she was escorting and asking for help.
This was weeks before she was contacted by CW and asked to audition for cycle 17 All Stars she said. By the time she was approached by the show she was working for Abercrombie and Fitch.
As far as she is concerned the production company knew about her past and knew that it was in the past before she even came close to signing a contract to appear on cycle This is key to her legal suit as she claims she would only have been in breach of contract had she been working as an escort during the competition.
At one point during the audition process, she said, 'the casting director came into my hotel room in LA and said, "Look, I heard some things and I know you know what I'm talking about but you take this opportunity and you run with it.
It was all the incentive she needed, she said, to tolerate the grueling conditions that came close to breaking some of the girls. She recalled: 'Sometimes we would work 20 hours straight of filming. We couldn't talk unless the cameras were on. We had to be put on a thing called "ice". Not eating, not drinking, not talking…You're guarded [by members of the crew]. It's like top model prison. That's exactly what it is. During the final stages of the All Stars season Angelea tasted first hand just how far producers would go to get the drama they were looking for, she claimed.
She said: 'We were in Greece and I was so tired from doing the final runway that I became sick. I was throwing up, I was shaking. I have asthma so initially I thought I was having an asthma attack. So I'm breathing hard, I'm panting and they're getting all this on film. I'm like, "Where is the doctor? They have a doctor on set. Why is the doctor taking so long? She continued: 'I can't really see anything and I look and it's Tyra in front of me. She's like, "Are you okay?
She left then the executive producer came in and said, "We'll get you to hospital. It was only later Angelea said that she found out, 'They said this is the most exciting thing that has happened since we've been filming in Greece so we're going to let the cameras roll.
They're letting the cameras roll to catch me in distress on purpose. They wanted to catch me in distress and they wanted to get Tyra involved. She did not want to be involved at all. She didn't care that I was sick. Angelea is now mother of a two-year-old son and works predominantly in liquor promotion. She remains bitter over her experiences at the hands of America's Next Top Model's producers.
No reason was given at the time for Angelea's disqualification, which got the rumor mill churning. The primary theory at first was that Angelea leaked her win ahead of time on social media, but that was debunked fairly quickly by both Angelea and eventual winner Lisa D'Amato.
Perennial runner-up Allison Harvard was off somewhere, not being consulted, snubbed once again. After that, rumors circulated that it was about Angelea's pregnancy , which was revealed after the show. But today's announcement ends the debate once and for all. While Preston's lawsuit journey is just beginning, we can at least close this reality TV mystery for good.
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