Kayla Ferrel Onder, now working as an attorney for sexual assault survivors, exclusively tells EW how she felt about a cycle 15 shoot including a kiss with a male model.

ANTM star reflects on ‘pressure’ to kiss male model after revealing childhood sex abuse: ‘Thought I had no other choice’

Kayla Ferrel Onder, now working as an attorney for sexual assault survivors, exclusively tells EW how she felt about a cycle 15 shoot including a kiss with a male model.

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Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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June 22, 2026 3:01 p.m. ET

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'ANTM' star Kayla Ferrel; Tyra Banks on 'ANTM'; Jay Manuel and Ferrel on 'ANTM'. Credit:

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- *America's Next Top Model *cycle 15 and returning all-star contestant Kayla Ferrel Onder speaks to EW exclusively about her experience on the show.

- Ferrel Onder recalls feeling "pressure" to kiss a male model during an on-camera challenge after revealing childhood sexual abuse to creative director Jay Manuel.

- "When you're in this controlled environment, either you do or you’re gone. [When] not doing something means your dreams end? You do things you wouldn’t naturally do."

Amid fallout from Netflix's *Reality Check* docuseries, which highlighted *America's Next Top Model* cycle 2 star Shandi Sullivan's alleged sexual assault on the set of the show, cycle 15 contestant turned sexual assault advocate and attorney Kayla Ferrel Onder exclusively opens up to ** about her troubling experience on the set of the Tyra Banks–hosted reality show.

Now the head of Kayla's Survivors, a national sexual abuse law firm that has recovered over $1 billion for its clients, Ferrel Onder tells EW her legal work has honed her perspective on advocating for others who've experienced sexual assault — including herself, as she previously spoke on *ANTM* about being abused at age 11. That reveal, she says, made it more difficult to participate in a 2010 commercial challenge on cycle 15, which initially tasked her with kissing a male model as part of the competition.

"I do recall expressing a lot of discomfort," Ferrel Onder tells EW of the challenge, which occurred on cycle 15, episode 8, titled "Zac Posen." The challenge included a seaside video shoot that saw the models endorsing a fake brand of water. In confessionals during the episode, Ferrel Onder, who was 19 at the time, said she was "not happy at all" about having to kiss a male model as part of the commercial. The camera also showed her wiping away tears and expressing discomfort as she sat in a makeup chair ahead of cameras rolling on the ad.

Now, as Ferrel alleges to EW, "These things were intentional, they were done on purpose, they were done to get a rise. My only regret is that I gave them that."

Jay Manuel and Ferrel Onder on 'America's Next Top Model' cycle 15.

On the show, Ferrel Onder, who came out as queer before joining the cast, said, "I just can't get this whole kiss thing out of my head. It was deeper to me than just being gay. I feel personally uncomfortable with intimacy with men." Creative director Jay Manuel is then shown bringing her away from the makeup tent to have a one-on-one conversation, in which the contestant revealed, "When I was 11, I was sexually assaulted. And this whole challenge freaks me out. I don't want to kiss them, I don't want to interact with them. They scare me. And I really don't want to do it."

In response, Manuel called Ferrel Onder's ordeal "horrible to go through," with the model then explaining to him that even her family didn't know about the assault. Manuel told her that she hasn't "healed from it" yet, and that she "can't go through the rest of" her life with the pain, and supportively suggested that she seek therapy to help overcome her trauma. Eventually, Ferrel Onder went through with the shoot, with the male model kissing her on the neck instead of on the mouth in the final product.

"I’d say pressure is an understatement. I thought I had no other choice," Ferrel Onder tells EW now, when reflecting on whether she felt pressured into participating despite her account of childhood sexual abuse. "When you're in this controlled environment, either you do or you’re gone. [When] not doing something means your dreams end? You do things you wouldn’t naturally do. They knew that would make me uncomfortable, they did it on purpose, and it was to get a reaction."

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She also recalls telling an off-camera staff member about the assault prior to the commercial shoot. Ferrel Onder says she remembers the woman as an on-set counselor, though she couldn't remember the staffer's official role.

Still, Ferrel Onder, who later returned for *ANTM*'s all-star cycle 17 edition, maintains that she felt she needed to follow through with the shoot to avoid consequences such as elimination or a low placement in that week's contestant ranking: "Sometimes the literal words aren’t what matters; it’s the environment that’s been bred, and what you believe from that environment," she says, later adding, "Sometimes you don’t need the actual words to know what the consequences or outcome is."

Through her work as an attorney with Kayla's Survivors, Ferrel Onder adds that she's thankful *Top Model *gave her the perspective to identify power imbalances, and that "especially on reality television sets" it's important to "have somebody there that’s actually there to support the contestants as a non-biased third party who can mediate" when issues like hers arise. “I was 19, I’d just come out of high school, with no real education, no understanding, had no clue about my rights," she recalls, recalling that signing her contract to join the show didn't give her "the ability to negotiate" and says it felt like being "thrown to the wolves."

Ferrel Onder and Manuel on 'ANTM' cycle 15.

She notes that *ANTM* "taught me what those [power dynamics] are, so I know how to advocate for [exploited] people now" in court.

EW has reached out to representatives for Banks and former *ANTM* producers Ken Mok and Laura Fuest for comment. EW has additionally attempted to reach Manuel for comment.

Ferrel Onder's remarks come after a wave of former *Top Model* contestants spoke out against the show in recent years, including in the aforementioned *Reality Check* series and EW's own 20th anniversary feature that saw 14 alums reveal their experiences on the program.

Before she spoke about her alleged sexual assault on cycle 2, the aforementioned Sullivan opened up to EW about the on-camera incident as well. The instance allegedly occurred after a group of male models was invited to the contestants' temporary apartment in Italy, with Sullivan recalling that large amounts of alcohol were consumed at the small party inside the dwelling.

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The show presented the moment as Sullivan, who had a boyfriend at the time of filming the 2004 cycle months prior in 2003, having a drunken one-off affair with one of the male models in attendance. The program later showed Sullivan calling her boyfriend to tell him the news in one of the show's most shocking moments, which saw her partner melt down on the other end of the phone.

"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,'" Sullivan told EW, speculating that production "manipulated" the meeting by suggesting the cast invite the men over, and also provided them with alcohol. "We had sex for two seconds, that was it, and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was like, 'Oh s---,'" Sullivan remembers. "It wasn't safe, and I wanted to make sure he was [clean]. They ended up [filming] me talking to the guy, like, 'Do you have STDs? When was the last time you were tested?' Thinking about that now, it's so bizarre. Like, this is my life, it's not a scripted thing."

Ferrel Onder on 'ANTM' cycle 15.

According to a spokesperson for Banks in 2023, the supermodel, host, and *ANTM* producer "played no role in the events that occurred this night. Everyone, including production, was surprised to find out what had transpired." (Executive producer Mok declined to comment on this instance, while representatives for producer Fuest did not respond to EW's repeated requests for comment at the time.)

The use of her response to Sullivan’s story in *Reality Check* served as the basis for a legal filing from Banks, who accused the show's team — including Mor Loushy, Daniel Sivan, and production company EverWonder Studio — of crafting a "false narrative" about her via "selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage."

Other contestants also spoke to EW about alleged sexual misconduct on *ANTM*, including cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry, who said that an unidentified Parisian man "totally touched" her vagina while she navigated the streets of Paris on a challenge that required her to traverse the city to meet with different fashion designers.

As similarly highlighted on *Reality Check*, cycle 4 contestant Keenyah Hill also told EW about an infamous moment that saw her posing with a male model, Bertini Heumegni, whom she said touched her inappropriately during the session, with the incident moving her to tears on set.

Later, at panel, Banks urged her to use her "feminine wiles" to combat unwanted advances on set. "You [push back] in a fun way, where he knows to back the heck up, but it doesn't really put static in the air, because then it makes *you* uncomfortable," Banks said on the show.

"I really wish that my feelings would've been taken into account," Hill told EW when asked about how she thinks judges should've handled the situation. "That should've been squashed there on set, and the focus at panel should've been my photo and not that moment."

On *Reality Check*, Banks offered an apology to Hill: "I was trying to empower her with the information that I had. I felt like that was empowering her based on the information I had. I thought that was the best advice, but it should have been, 'Stop,' down. And that's what would happen today," Banks said on the docuseries. "We all now understand the protections that women need, so I say to Keenyah, boo boo, I am so sorry. None of us knew. Network executives didn't know, and I did the best that I could at that time. But she deserved more. She did."

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