Tyra Banks has admitted that she is disappointed her America's Next Top Model contestants are often told to lose weight after leaving the show.
Speaking to Digital Spy to promote her Special K Fight Fat Talk campaign, Banks revealed that the models on the CW competition are often forced to shed pounds after leaving the series to compete in the real fashion industry.
"The sad thing is that on average, my girls on America's Next Top Model are larger than the high fashion girls on runways, and when they leave America's Next Top Model they're excited, they're like, 'Yay, I'm going to start modeling'," Banks said.
"And then they get in the real world and they're like, 'My agent is saying I need to lose 20lbs'. I'll see them four months later and they are a bone. A bone."
Banks continued: "I realize that they were in this beautiful Top Model incubator of safety, but then when they leave the competition, they're out there with the wolves, and to compete they have to lose that weight. That's a sad fact."
Banks explained that there is not much she can do to support her models once they leave Top Model saying: "They're on their own when they leave the show and they have progressed on to the real world. They're under my care on the show.
"I've had hundreds of girls so I can't watch every single one of them, but I have seen a couple of them and talked to them after, and I'm like, 'What's going on? What are you doing?' And they tell me that that's what the agency wants, and they're under the agency's care. There's only so much that I can do. But it does sadden me."