From the runway to philanthropy to hosting a talk show Tyra Banks, 46, has truly done it all — but admits she still struggled at the height of her success. “[Hosting a talk show] was the hardest thing in the world that I have ever done in my life to damn near this day,” the model spilled to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY at the launch of Nine West’s new Spring collection in Los Angeles on Thursday, Mar. 12. “I was not happy…I was the most successful in my entire life. Made the most money I ever had in my entire life and sometimes didn’t want to get out of bed,” she added. The model was the host of the popular Tyra Banks Show that aired from 2005 – 2010, and, at the time, was dubbed Oprah Winfrey for a new generation.
Tyra came to the realization after her leadership professor at Harvard Business School — where she attended for three years between 2010 and 2013 — asked his students to write down when they were successful and how they felt at the time. “Everybody [in my class] was sad,” she continued. “And so he was like, ‘It’s about finding that balance. It’s not just about winning, it’s about winning it personally, too.’ It’s not about excellence. It’s about good enough. You got to keep going….I think [The Tyra Banks Show] was also hard because I was producing, too, and doing two America’s Next Top Model‘s a year. I was sleepy.”
Nowadays, Tyra’s life is looking very different with her greatest accomplishment yet: 4-year-old son York Banks with ex Erik Asla, 56! Since becoming a mom, the supermodel has been striving to balance work-and-home life — especially with projects like Life Size 3 and experiential attraction Model Land in the works. “When I’m with [York] I need to put my phone away. There’s plenty of time to deal with an email and a text from work and stuff when he’s asleep and he deserves my undivided attention,” she shared. “I didn’t understand like I’d be at home sometimes and my son would be acting really like, just unruly and then I started to realize after a couple of weeks I was like, it’s only when I’m on my phone. So he just wants mommy’s attention.”
Amongst the many projects she’s working on, the Inglewood, California native has continued to keep a foot in the modeling world — but admits that the game has changed since she got her start back in the early ’90s. “Social media changed [modeling]…Now power is with the people,” Tyra shared. “And the people were tired of being dictated to and said, ‘This is what we look like, this is who we are, this is how we think, and we’re going to be very vocal about that.’… Things are being done and they’ve changed. I hope that it’s not a trend,” she continued.
The 46-year-old is front and center in Nine West’s new “Innovators” campaign as their Global Ambassador and looks better than ever, even rocking one of her favorite shoe trends. “I’m loving the pop of color – I just love it because you’re able to kind of not think about your clothes if you’re rushing out the house, which I am pretty often – dealing with my son, and playing with him and doing breakfast with him, and then I’m like, ‘gosh, I have to get ready,'” she revealed. “Then I throw on that pump and there’s these Nine West fluorescent yellow ones that I’m rocking right now!”