Jeana Turner Reveals the Truth Behind Shaving Her Head onAmerica's Next Top Model: 'I Really Wasn't Ready' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

“Removing the wig is really liberating, it’s freeing,” Turner said onANTM. “I feel like the whole world can see me now. I feel like I can see myself now.”

Jeana Turner showing her alopecia on America’s Next Top Model.VH1

VH1

In a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Turner cries as she confesses in the docuseries that she “wasn’t ready” to model bald.

Since leaving the show, Turner has been open with her criticism of the program as well as its long-running host and creator,Tyra Banks.

“And then to be told, ‘Walk around like that. And you have to believe it’s beautiful.’ What if I didn’t?” she continued. “I obviously didn’t think it was beautiful — I was covering it up with wigs.”

“We wanted to end the season with a bang andAmerica’s Next Top Modeldelivered on that,” showrunner Meghan Payne says to PEOPLE. “As someone who grew up watchingANTM, I always looked forward to watching down the cuts to see what new information was divulged.”

Payne noted how many of the show’s confessionals were used “out of context” — and Turner specifically was subject to this harsh editing tactic.

Banks was contacted regarding the series, though she does not appear in the episode centered onANTM. PEOPLE reached out to a representative for Banks for comment.

The show has covered other reality favorites, likeToddlers and TiarasandHell’s Kitchen, andAmerica’s Next Top Model will round out the first season of this docuseries. Though there is not a second season confirmed just yet, Payne says the Netflix hitLove Is Blindis “at the top of everyone’s list" for a future deep dive.

source: people.com