{"id":46911,"date":"2026-02-24T16:02:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/?p=46911"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:02:05","slug":"i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/02\/24\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"I won $100k on America&#8217;s Next Top Model but it ended up completely ruining my life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>India Gants won cycle 23 of America&#8217;s Next Top Model when she was just 19, but has since admitted that she she hugely regrets how she spent her whopping $100k prize.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@indiagants\/video\/7609534284507991309?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc\">TikTok<\/a>, India revealed that after winning the season she received &#8220;a check with one hundred thousand dollars literally written on it. No tax taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her parents at the time told her to put aside a chunk of the money that would get taxed, but she admitted that &#8220;by the time that rolled around, I had already spent all the money.\u201d Yikes.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@indiagants\/video\/7609534284507991309\" data-video-id=\"7609534284507991309\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" style=\"max-width:605px; min-width:325px;\">\n<section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@indiagants\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@indiagants?refer=embed\">@indiagants<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Would I spend it differently now, as a 29 year old\u2026? 100% yes. But lesson learned. <a title=\"antm\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/antm?refer=embed\">#antm<\/a> <a title=\"americasnexttopmodel\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/americasnexttopmodel?refer=embed\">#americasnexttopmodel<\/a> <a title=\"realitytv\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/realitytv?refer=embed\">#realitytv<\/a> <\/p>\n<p> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c original sound - India Gants\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-7609534389533313805?refer=embed\">\u266c original sound &#8211; India Gants<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As for what she used most of her money for? India revealed: &#8220;I paid for a year up front in a beautiful New York City apartment that my roommate was gonna pay me every month to rent out. That was like over just over sixty thousand dollars. Plus, I used a broker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>India Gants explained that she&#8217;d thought that after winning America&#8217;s Next Top Model the &#8220;$100,000 checks were gonna be coming this way and that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She continued: &#8220;I just thought like, I have to pay to maintain this lifestyle of somebody who just won America&#8217;s Next Top Model. I wanna have a nice apartment in New York.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to dress nicely, go to nice restaurants, like get my hair done, look presentable. I wanted to behave like the winner of America&#8217;s Next Top Model. And I wanted to invest in myself after I had won.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She decided to move to LA and bought a car with the remaining prize money and she then realised that she&#8217;d &#8220;ended up spending the $100,000 before I had paid taxes on it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_46923\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46923\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46923\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T160035.491.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T160035.491.png 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T160035.491-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T160035.491-1024x538.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T160035.491-768x403.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-46923\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Via VH1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As such she was &#8220;paying off the taxes from that prize money for a very, very long time,\u201d and even had to enroll in a payment plan so she could actually afford to repay the amount.<\/p>\n<p>Ten years on, she says if she did it all again she&#8217;d more likely invest the money and admitted that she does &#8220;regret&#8221; how she spent her money, but there&#8217;s a silver lining behind it all.<\/p>\n<p>She added: &#8220;Do I regret it? Actually, probably yes. But the way I like to learn lessons is through making mistakes. So I definitely learned some good lessons and learned a lot about finance and financial planning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates \u2013 like\u00a0<\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Reality Shrine<\/a><\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">\u00a0on\u00a0<\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/realityshrineofficial?rdid=TzQu2kEd2cUqU4rD&amp;share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F14zX5cKubf%2F#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/realityshrineofficial?rdid=TzQu2kEd2cUqU4rD&amp;share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F14zX5cKubf%2F#\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Facebook<\/a><\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;I seriously regret it&#8217; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249734183,"featured_media":46922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358],"tags":[2145,1438],"class_list":["post-46911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-americas-next-top-model","tag-netflix"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/02\/24\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"I won $100k on America&#8217;s Next Top Model but it ended up completely ruining my life","url":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/02\/24\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/02\/24\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T155721.023-150x150.png","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T155721.023.png"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ellie Ring"}],"creator":["Ellie Ring"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Reality Shrine","logo":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png"},"keywords":["america's next top model","netflix"],"dateCreated":"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z","datePublished":"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"I won $100k on America&#8217;s Next Top Model but it ended up completely ruining my life\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/thetab.com\\\/realityshrine\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/24\\\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/thetab.com\\\/realityshrine\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/24\\\/i-won-100k-on-americas-next-top-model-but-it-ended-up-completely-ruining-my-life\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T155721.023-150x150.png\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2026-02-24T155721.023.png\"},\"articleSection\":\"News\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Ellie Ring\"}],\"creator\":[\"Ellie Ring\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Reality Shrine\",\"logo\":\"https:\\\/\\\/realitytvshrine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png\"},\"keywords\":[\"america's next top model\",\"netflix\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T16:02:05Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/realitytvshrine.com\/p.js"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249734183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46911"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46925,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46911\/revisions\/46925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}