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Topics: News, US News, Film and TV, Celebrity
Kit Roberts
A star of America's Next Top Model who was filmed having sex while blackout drunk on the show has opened up on the painful incident in a new documentary.
Shandi Sullivan was part of one of the show's biggest episodes involving a sexual encounter with an Italian model on set while still in a relationship with her boyfriend at the time, Eric.
In new Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, she recalled that a group of men who had driven the models around on Vespas visited the apartment where competitors on the reality TV show were staying later that day.
Production for the Tyra Banks-hosted show had relocated to Milan, and when the models arrived, drinks started flowing.
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Shandi alleges that she was sexually assaulted while she was blackout drunk, and that she doesn't fully remember what happened.
Cameras captured the awful phone call between her and Eric when she told him what had happened, where she can be seen sobbing on the floor in obvious distress.
In the documentary, Shandi recalled that she had 'two bottles of wine by myself' and hadn't had much to eat.
"I remember getting in the hot tub. I remember April, Mercedes getting in the hot tub," Shandi said. "And then I just remember the guy looking at me and I looked at him. And I was pretty drunk at that point. Everything kind of after that is just a blur."
She added: “I remember him on top of me. I was blacked out. No one did anything to stop it. And it all got filmed, all of it."
Jay Manuel, creative director on the show, said: "The rule on Top Model was, if you went into a bathroom alone, a camera could not follow you in. But of course, when she went into the shower, she was technically not alone. So, the cameras went in, and they captured it.
"I don't know whose decision it was, but as producers do, this was a story point now and we're going to see it all the way through."
It's not the first time that Shandi has spoken up about the incident.
Speaking in 2023, Shandi claimed that the production had 'manipulated' the scandalous moment by inviting the models over and providing them with alcohol.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she said: "I was really drunk, falling down. If I would've seen me out with that dude in [public], I would've been like, 'Okay, grab [her], you're way too drunk to even know what's going on.'"
"They ended up [filming] me talking to the guy, like, 'Do you have STDs? When was the last time you were tested?'"
She added: "Thinking about that now, it's so bizarre. Like, this is my life, it's not a scripted thing."
Sullivan went on to reveal that crew working on the show had felt uncomfortable about having to film the moment she called her boyfriend, which led to him screaming down the line at her and calling her a 'b*tch'.
They even broke one of their rules on set following the incident.
"They weren't supposed to talk to us," she revealed. "But after, they were like, 'We're so sorry we had to film that.'"
A spokesperson for host Banks told EW previously that she 'played no role in the events that occurred this night', adding: "Everyone, including production, was surprised to find out what had transpired."