America’s Next Top Model cycle 3 alum Yaya DaCosta — who translated her early-aughts reality TV fame into a successful acting career in shows like Chicago Med and The Lincoln Lawyer — has revealed that she recently had a secret reunion with ANTM host Tyra Banks that helped heal past trauma from her time on the controversial competition series.

DaCosta shared an impassioned Instagram video Saturday morning in which she reflected on the show after Banks appeared on stage at the 2025 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards on Feb. 27, where she gave a speech addressing ANTM‘s recently embattled legacy regarding shoots in which contestants switched races and problematic critiques from the judging panel (Banks admitted in her speech to saying “some dumb s—” on the series).

In the lengthy clip, DaCosta, 42, who finished cycle 3 in second place in 2004, framed her conversation around a line from Banks’ speech, in which the 51-year-old host championed ANTM, highlighting the progressive diversity of its cast as well as her own personal growth after receiving sustained criticism from viewers and former contestants. “We all evolve,” Banks said. “We all get better together.”

“A lot was said and a lot was not said. I feel compelled to speak,” DaCosta said in her video response, telling her followers that she was also in attendance at the awards, where she had a secret, unexpected reunion with Banks after she went to the event’s photo studio, where she discovered Banks sitting with another person.

“I haven’t had a real interaction with this woman since 2004. The story I’d been telling for so long was a story of trauma,” DaCosta said. The clip then cut to a series of images from ANTM history, with DaCosta claiming that its “manipulative editing,” “weaponization of girls’ weaknesses,” and “blackface photo shoots,” along with the show “catalyzing body dysmorphia” and highlighting eating disorders, caused “real trauma” for the show’s alums. “It wasn’t by accident. It was by design. The goal was entertainment over real-world modeling preparation, and especially over mental health.”

DaCosta began crying before recounting her exchange with Banks, which she considered a warm reunion in which she “finally came to this place of freedom.”

“When I saw her, I was genuinely excited, and I walked over and we had a beautiful conversation,” DaCosta said. “No, there was no explicit apology, but you could see in that [speech] she’s sick of people every once in a while bringing up these controversial clips from the show.”

“Some of the same people who are making these little videos and commentaries … back then, were watching it and laughing and not really seeing anything wrong with it,” DaCosta said in defense of Banks. “Yes, things change. Like she said, we all evolve. Society as a whole is shifting, and so no wonder we as individuals are shifting. Let’s not pretend the show wasn’t wildly successful, because its audience was right there on the judging table.”

She added, “We all evolve. We’re all doing the best we can at all times with the resources that we have. It doesn’t mean that we accept abuse, but we know that everyone is just trying to get their human needs met. When I hear this speech, what I hear is courage. It takes courage to get up in front of people and finally say what’s been on her mind and heart for so many years and insist on recognition for the positive, and not just the negative.”

DaCosta also praised Banks’ forward-thinking casting on the show, which regularly focused on models with different body types — with Banks championing plus-size models across its 24 cycles — and from different backgrounds. She also cast trans model Isis King on cycle 11 back in 2008, which DaCosta noted was ahead of the curve for TV.

She added that before their meeting ended Banks’ mother, Carolyn London, who also appeared with DaCosta on cycle 3, entered the room and greeted her as well.

“Then it was time for them to go,” she recalled. “Before they went, I just took her into an embrace. There’s a hug you give acquaintances and strangers, and there’s a hug you give when words don’t suffice. Y’all, I held that woman. When it was time for the hug to be over, I held some more. I took a deep breath because I wanted her to feel what it feels like to fully be forgiven, appreciated, and loved.”

DaCosta continued, “We offer support in hopes that when it’s our turn that we receive support, too — when it’s our turn to stand up, whether it’s in front of one person or millions of people, and hold ourselves accountable, that we are received.”

She finished the video with words of advice to those struggling with lingering trauma. “Something so magical happens when you just make the choice to let something go,” she said. “And then it’s gone, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’m free.’ Because I’m free, I want y’all to be free.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Banks and DaCosta for additional comment.

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Several of DaCosta’s fellow ANTM alums reacted in the comments section of the video, including her cycle 3 sister (and eventual winner) Eva Marcille.

“I love you from head to toe!” the Real Housewives of Atlanta star wrote. “You have always been a woman of such charisma and eloquence when you speak. Your maturity and your desire to be so aligned in your purpose illuminates everything you do. I love, love, love this post. So beautiful, Sis.”

Cycle 14 and cycle 17 contestant Angelea Preston added, “This made me tear up. Divine timing. I love, love, love this for you!!!!”

In a wide-ranging 20th-anniversary feature about ANTM, which launched in 2003 before airing its final cycle to date in 2018, EW spoke to 14 prior contestants about their experience on the show. Many, like cycle 13’s Jennifer An, said they felt uncomfortable during challenges in which the model wore dark makeup to portray people of different races, though cycle 4’s Keenyah Hill said she didn’t feel that way.

“There’s a big difference between us being artistic and having fun with photo shoot ideas and different parts of our aesthetic. That’s our job as models,” Hill said, emphasizing what she felt was a clear line between the shoots and the malicious intent behind blackface. “If there’s a [non-Black person] who goes out on Halloween, painting their skin brown and making a mockery of it, then it’s blackface, and making a mockery of [Black people.] Those are two different things; look at the context.”

In a statement to EW at the time, a spokesperson for Banks said the intention of the shoot was to combat an industry where “lighter skin and straight hair were pervasive beauty standards” that “perpetuated deep insecurities within women.” The spokesperson maintained that such shoots were “meant to be a moment celebrating and spotlighting underrepresented ideologies of beauty — textured hair and darker skin — on a global scale.” (Executive producer Ken Mok declined to comment, while representatives for producer Laura Fuest Silva and creative director Jay Manuel did not respond to EW’s multiple requests for comment at the time.)

Though America’s Next Top Model hasn’t aired a new cycle since 2018, its cancelation was never formally announced. EW exclusively reported in early 2024, however, that Banks had no current plans to bring the show back for a 25th cycle as she worked on building her SMiZE & DREAM ice cream empire, despite the model-mogul previously telling EW in an interview for her Life-Size 2 movie that she was considering relaunching ANTM with another all-star edition as its final installment.