Ebony quit Top Model because she “was so over the whole reality show thing”

Wednesday’s episode of Top Model 8 ended with a shocking! decision as Ebony removed herself from the competition. She ended up in the bottom two, but Tyra and company kept her in the competition, and that’s when Ebony quit. Her decision prompted Tyra to say, “The most unattractive thing in the world to me is a quitter, and for that, you can go.”

Since then, Ebony has given that label serious thought. “When she called me a quitter, I was a little upset by it. But after a while, I realized people are entitled to their own opinions. She thinks I’m a quitter, that’s fine. In a sense I did quit, so in a sense I am a quitter,” she told reporters on Thursday, according to Reality TV World’s transcript.

Ebony now says she left because “I just did not want to be there anymore. I really didn’t have a desire for it. At that point, I didn’t really care about being America’s Next Top Model. I didn’t really care half as much as the other girls did, so I didn’t think it would be fair for me to stay there if I really didn’t care for it as much… I just realized that wasn’t my passion and I was so over the whole reality show thing,” she said.

She considered quitting for two weeks, but held back because, she says, “I didn’t want my father to be disappointed in me and so that’s mainly the reason why I stayed as long as I did. But then after a while, I just told myself, ‘You’re not happy.’ Why stay in a situation where you’re not happy? So I wanted to be true and real with myself — not worry about other people think — and that’s why I decided to do what I did.”

She also says her attitude on the show was, of course, a constructed character. “Going into the competition I thought, ‘This is a reality show. So they’re going to want a drama queen.’ So I created that person, and was later confronted by Tyra about it, which I totally deserved because I was out of control! I told myself if I were to make it back to the house [after the judging panel], I was just going to be myself. I was myself in the house, and I got along with the girls… That’s one thing I regret. I wish I would have stayed myself throughout the competition.”