Supermodel Tyra Banks surprises with devastating news during interview on Sunrise

Tyra Banks sat down for an interview on Sunrise to talk about expanding her business in Australia, before the topic turned to devastating news in her personal life.

Tyra Banks held back tears during an interview on Sunrise this morning, where she dropped an unexpected update about her personal life.

The US supermodel, 51, stopped by Channel 7’s Sydney studios Monday, with the star currently living in Australia as she prepares to open a Darling Harbour shop for her ice-cream business Smize & Dream in March.

But conversation soon turned to the wildfires in Los Angeles, where Banks has lived her entire life.

The TV personality, who has owned and sold several properties in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood over the years, revealed she was one of the thousands of people to have lost their home in the blaze. The Palisades fire, one of several burning in the city since January 6, has torn through more than 23,700 acres, with 5000 structures destroyed.

Banks hadn’t shared anything about her home burning down on her social media accounts, telling Sunrise hosts Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington she chose to keep it quiet.

“I lost my house … I haven’t really talked about it, um, but yeah, I have,” Banks said.

“I just didn’t want to pull a lot of attention to me, I feel like there’s a lot of people that need that attention so I haven’t talked about it. But I can’t sit here and not tell the truth.”

Tyra Banks shared a sad update during her TV interview on Sunrise.

The model lost her home in the Los Angeles fires.

The entrepreneur went on to say she was in Sydney at the time she found out, enjoying a dinner party with friends alongside her partner, Canadian businessman Louis Bélanger-Martin.

“We were at a friend’s house here and celebrating, having fun,” she began.

“I kept checking my phone, not for my house, but for my friends and family, making sure they were evacuating …

“And then I asked my partner, I said ‘I’m seeing something on my phone here’, and he said … (nods). And I just pulled it together and didn’t say anything to my friends, and just stayed in that moment. And then we went home, and we cried, and we had our moment.”

Nat Barr clearly wasn’t expecting Banks to make the revelation.

Banks told Matt Shirvington she was at a friend’s house in Sydney when she found out.

Banks said she was currently living between Australia and New York, and most of her possessions “thank goodness” weren’t at her home in Los Angeles.

“A lot of those mementos are here and in New York, (but) there were some mementos that we lost. Yeah, it’s tough,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Banks discussed expanding her business empire to enter the confectionary space, having founded Smize & Dream during the Covid-19 pandemic, where she started out by selling pints in Los Angeles before opening her first pop-up store in Dubai in 2023.

Banks is currently living in Australia to expand her ice-cream business.

Banks said Aussies were the ‘sweetest’ people she’d met. Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images

She had nothing but kind words to say about Australia, saying the people here were “very sweet”.

“You guys are some nice people,” she said.

“You’re almost like southern Americans … ‘Come on, have a seat!’ Just very, very sweet.”

She continued, “The coffee. Oh my gosh. The smoothest coffee ever in my life.

“And I love the mall here, which you guys call a shopping centre.

“And you guys have the best dairy! I had to reformulate my ice-cream flavours because your dairy is so pure.”

Originally published as Supermodel Tyra Banks surprises with devastating news during interview on Sunrise