America's Next Top ModelStar Claims 'a Girl Fainted Every Week' on Show

Mar. 15, 2025

Sarah Hartshorne (left) and pictured on ‘America’s Next Top Model’ (right).Photo:sarahbhartshorne/Instagram; The CW

sarahbhartshorne/Instagram; The CW

AnAmerican’s Next Top Modelalum is speaking out about the harsh conditions she allegedly faced on the show.

“A girl fainted every week,” she alleged. “They warned us. They were like, ‘Don’t lock your knees.'”

Hartshorne, who joined the show as a plus size model, initially thought her peers were fainting because of their “skinny” weight until she experienced a dizzy spell herself.

She recalled that the elimination days were “the longest, hardest days” on set. The content creator claimed they would sometimes start filming around 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and the day wouldn’t wrap “until like 3 a.m.”

Sarah Hartshorne.sarahbhartshorne/Instagram

sarahbhartshorne/Instagram

Hartshorne had a tearful elimination in the eighth episode of the season after the judges claimed she had lost too much weight during the competition and no longer appeared as a plus size model.

“The reason that I was losing weight was that I was stressed,” she alleged in the docuseries. “But also that I was trying to save money because we weren’t getting paid, and so I was trying to only eat very little and very cheap food.”

Looking back, Hartshorne said she felt “super sad” and “did cry a lot” after losing the competition, but ultimately had a difficult time deciphering her emotions.

A representative for Banks did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Sarah Hartshorne attends Darrelle Revis’ birthday party at Greenhouse on July 28, 2009 in New York City.Jerritt Clark/Getty

Jerritt Clark/Getty

Hartshorne alleged: “We never knew where we were going at any given time. They would transport us from place to place in a windowless van and we’d have to face every situation totally clueless and out of sorts.”

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The model is now preparing to release a book about her time on the show titledYou Wanna Be on Top: A Memoir of Makeovers, Manipulation, and Not Becoming America’s Next Top Model, which is set to hit the shelves on July 8, 2025.

source: people.com