- 2001
Tyra's Zone
Banks establishes Tzone, a Southern California camp aimed at building self-esteem in teenage girls. "I'm just 'BBQ' [her camp nickname], a girl like them," Banks tells PEOPLE. "It's important for me to let young girls know how much of it is smoke and mirrors. I still go to work and see people, my peers that make me feel insecure. I talk about that. I shed tears about that. It breaks down barriers."
The Girlie Show
The confident catwalker appears in the first-ever broadcast of the Victoria's Secret show, which makes waves as the lingerie-clad models incite indecency complaints to the FCC. Four years later, Banks will announce her retirement from modeling and make the glitzy event her last runway show.
- 2002
Love & Basketball
Banks, a constant courtside presence at Sacramento Kings games, is linked to Kings forward Chris Webber. "She's my closest female friend," the NBA star says to PEOPLE in May. After a two-year romance and talk of an engagement, they split in 2004. Webber's rep confirms the two "broke up and remain good friends," telling PEOPLE, "at no time were they ever engaged."
- 2003
TV's Next Top Host
Her success continues with the launch of her girls-go-high-fashion reality show, America's Next Top Model, on which women vie for a modeling contract. With the show still going strong after seven seasons, Banks tells PEOPLE, "It makes me really proud that there can be a healthy model out there to show you don't have to resort to crazy means to get the type of figure you desire."
- 2004
Shake It, Tyra
Banks releases a hip-hop-flavored music video, "Shake Your Body," which features dancing by contestants from the second season of Top Model. She pays the $30,000 production costs herself, hoping the video leads to a record deal. It gets some airplay on MTV2, but the single never makes it to radio. "That was a dream," she tells Forbes in 2006. "I sounded decent, but you shouldn't ever do something just because you're only decent at it."
- 2005
The Next Oprah?
Six years after being a youth correspondent on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Banks, 31, pulls double-duty as host and executive producer of her own talk show. It is on The Tyra Banks Show that she faces rival supermodel Naomi Campbell. "One of the reasons I wanted to do this show is because sisterhood is so important to me," she says during their discussion.
- 2006
Shaping the World
Time names Banks one of the Most Influential People in the World, where Heidi Klum calls her a "whip-smart business mogul." She makes the list again the following year, with famed feminist Naomi Wolf writing, "What I love about Tyra Banks is that she is taking action. She has used her own weight gain…as a teachable moment to confront the culture and speak out to girls and young women about embracing their bodies in all sizes."
- 2007
Bigger is Better
After tabloids and blogs run photos mocking Banks for looking heavier, she tells PEOPLE she's happy with her present figure, which is 30 lbs. heavier than her 2005 pre-retirement weight. Posing on the cover of PEOPLE, an empowered Banks says, "I still feel hot." Weeks later, with tears in her eyes and rage in her voice, Banks tells critics on her talk show, "Kiss my fat a--!" After launching her "So What" campaign that promotes positive body images, Banks is listed as one of PEOPLE's 100 Most Beautiful.
- 2008
Lonely at the Top for Tyra
After moving her talk show to New York, Banks opens up to Essence about the lonely life she leads at the top. "I'd go to work and women would be crying in my arms on the talk show," she says. "But then I'd go home and put my key in my door and ... nothing: no friends, no husband, no children. I feel so full when I'm at work but so empty when I come home." While Essence reports the buzz that she's involved with investment banker John Utendahl, 50, Banks keeps mum on relationship rumors.
Tyra's First Emmy Award
Banks, 34, wins her first Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Informative Talk Show. "I want to thank Oprah Winfrey for her inspiration," Banks says. "She is the queen and will always be the queen." Using her winning moment to silence her detractors, she adds, "When you have a dream, there are going to be many people that tell you that you cannot do it, that you are not good enough. And I want you to tell them to kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootylicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy, fat a--!"
Photo Credits
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Lester Cohen/WireImage; MARION CURTIS/DMI/REX USA; Robert Mora/Getty; DE YONKER/THE CW; Warner Bros./Everett; Ronald Asadorian/Splash; Chris Polk/FilmMagic
- Name
- Tyra Banks
- Birth Date
- December 04, 1973
- Birth Place
- Inglewood, Calif.
- Heart Monitor
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John Utendahl, boyfriend (2007 to present)
Chris Webber, ex-boyfriend (2002 to 2004)
Seal, ex-boyfriend (1996)
John Singleton, ex-boyfriend (1993 to 1996)
