The brutal real reason ANTM’s first winner Adrianne Curry isn’t appearing on the show
Her story is actually horrific
Adrianne Curry will always be that girl.
The very first America’s Next Top Model winner, crowned back in 2003, when low-rise jeans reigned and Tyra’s “We were rooting for you” energy was still new.
But with ANTM getting a huge Netflix deep-dive in 2026, people expected a cycle one check-in… and instead got a hard no.
Adrianne’s been reflecting on her win online, but she’s also made it super clear she’s not here for the modern reality TV machine. And honestly? Her reasoning is super straightforward.
What happened to Adrianne on ANTM?
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If you only remember the iconic final runway and that raw, early-2000s vibe, here’s the refresher… Adrianne won ANTM cycle one over Shannon Stewart, launching the franchise that would run for 24 cycles from 2003 to 2018.
But the ‘fairy tale’ ending has long been complicated. In recent years, Curry has spoken publicly about how she felt the post-win opportunities didn’t match what was promised, and she’s described feeling embarrassed by what she says she actually received versus the big, glossy career that was hyped on-screen.
She’s also alleged that the show’s infamous makeover did real damage.
The ANTM alum has claimed a weave installed during production left her with long-term hair and scalp issues, one of the many “makeovers gone wrong” stories that’s now part of the show’s reckoning, per Us Weekly.
And yet, even with all that baggage, she still revisits her win with a kind of disbelief.
In a social media clip where she rewatched her finale crowning, Curry joked that before the winner was announced, she was ready to “be…grateful and graceful,” and then, when Tyra calls her name, she said she basically “blacked out” because she never truly thought it would happen.
She revealed why she’s not appearing on the show
I am deeply grateful I won the first season of top model. i think people psychoanalyzing it over 20 years later with a woke lens is absurd. I don’t trust people to not manipulate things I say for tv, so i decline everything. Also, the public is cult-like and cruel, so the last…
— Adrianne Curry (@AdrianneCurry) January 27, 2026
So why skip Netflix’s ANTM docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, the one that’s reigniting all the chit-chat? Because Adrianne doesn’t trust the process.
After promo for the doc dropped, Curry posted that she’s “deeply grateful” she won… but thinks people “psychoanalysing it over 20 years later with a woke lens is absurd.”
She added that she doesn’t trust producers not to “manipulate” her words for TV, so she “decline[s] everything.”
Then came the line that really sums up her stance: she called the public “cult-like and cruel,” and said the last thing she wants is “a bunch of eyeballs” on her… plus she hopes other contestants don’t have their words twisted.
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