America’s Next Top Model franchise has mourned the deaths of some former contestants over the years.
The competition show, which ran from 2003 to 2018, followed aspiring models as they competed to receive a contract, a fashion spread, a cover of a major magazine and a cosmetics campaign.
Over the years, the challenges became more absurd, including a photo shoot centered around homelessness, the risks of smoking and more. There were also more controversial concepts such as race-swapping, murder and eating disorders.
America’s Next Top Model was later revisited with Netflix’s Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, which featured former contestants, executive producers Tyra Banks and Ken Mok and former judges Jay Manuel, Miss J. Alexander and Nigel Barker breaking down the reality competition’s best — and worst — moments.
E! released its own docuseries titled Dirty Rotten Scandals, which centered around former contestants and “unveils the dark underbelly of the long-running TV series through the untold stories of former contestants — what was presented as a golden opportunity for aspiring models unravels into a harrowing saga of exploitation, shattered dreams, and resilience.”
The official synopsis teased first-hand interviews with the contestants that “cast light on behind-the-scenes secrets and the steep prices they paid for a shot at being ‘on top.’”
“The series promised fame and fortune to young girls, but ultimately its creator, Tyra Banks, was the only one who ended up on top,” the description concluded. “Now, more than two decades after the series premiered, and on the other side of personal and professional turmoil, the models come forward to correct the record on the real story behind the cultural phenomenon that was America’s Next Top Model.”
Keep scrolling for the most heartbreaking America’s Next Top Model tragedies over the years:
Mirjana Puhar
Mirjana Puhar, who appeared on cycle 21, was killed in 2015 at age 19 in a triple homicide at her boyfriend Jonathan Alvarado’s home. Puhar, Alvarado and his roommate Jusmar Gonzaga-Garcia were all found dead at their residence.
Edward Sanchez was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder, receiving four life sentences without parole and an additional 13 years behind bars for a separate attempted murder case. Sanchez was sentenced to life in prison in 2017.
Kimberly Rydzewski
The cycle 10 contestant died at age 29 in 2016. A cause of death was not confirmed at the time.
Jael Strauss
After being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in 2018, Jael Strauss died in hospice care at age 34.
“I was gonna write some long thing but some of you guys deserve to know,” she wrote via Instagram before her death. “On October 2nd I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. It has aggressively spread throughout my body and is incurable. With treatment, it may prolong my life longer than the ‘few months’ doctors said I could make it. I don’t want to die.”
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