Back in the early 1990s, if you had asked fashion pundits to predict whether Tyra Banks or Naomi Campbell would make the most of her career, few would have said Banks. Campbell, with her Amazonian body and charismatic, hip-slinking walk, was the undisputed queen of the catwalks and the most famous black model in the world. Tyra, with her Bambi-like prettiness and Victoria’s Secret contract, was the also-ran.

Fast-forward to today, and the story has changed. While Campbell battles court cases and assault charges and appears to be continually fending off bad publicity, Banks, 33, has retired from the runway and transformed herself into television’s sassiest young mogul. She produces and hosts America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show, both worldwide hits with the unpredictable 16-to 35-year-old female demographic. Her income last year was an estimated £9m, and she’s on course to top that in 2007. Nobody compares Banks to Campbell any more. Instead, she’s being hailed as the new Oprah Winfrey.

Banks, who comes from a middle-class Californian family and had decided to study film and television production at Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles, before the catwalks of Paris beckoned, is careful not to revel in the Winfrey analogy too much. “It’s a nice comparison,” she says, “but I used to go home and cry because I felt it was such a hard thing to live up to. I’ve watched her show since it started. It’s flattering to be compared, but there’s no way I could fill those shoes.”

Indeed, her oeuvre is less heavyweight (excuse the pun) than Winfrey’s. America’s Next Top Model, which follows 13 young women as they bitch and battle their way to a coveted beauty contract, is now in its eighth season and has been syndicated to 110 countries. Meanwhile, The Tyra Banks Show, her daytime talkfest has made headlines with its attention-grabbing subject matter. Banks has submitted to a mammogram in front of the studio audience to prove that she doesn’t have breast implants; she has removed all her make-up so viewers can see what she looks like au naturel; and she has investigated the battle of the sexes by dressing as a man.

In one of the most talked-about episodes, Banks chose to end her feud with Campbell on the show. “This big rivalry had been going on my entire modelling career, and it made me want to leave the fashion industry,” says Banks, who admitted that she felt bullied and intimidated by Campbell. She confronted the bad-tempered supermodel, who denied ever asking designers to drop Banks from shows, but admitted she had been “self-medicating” (therapy-speak for abusing drugs or alcohol) at that time. They tearfully made up, then held a catwalking competition to the whoops and cheers of the audience.

Another memorable stunt involved Banks putting on a fat suit for a day — all the better for the bodacious swimsuit model to understand the issue of obesity. At the time, she said: “People started laughing at me straight to my face, and that really hurt. I knew I had a fat suit on, and I could take it off at the end of the day, but it still hurt.” She followed this up with an emotional chat with a group of morbidly obese women. Thin, pretty Banks, oozing sincerity, listened and empathised as best she could, but the incident exposed her main weakness as Winfrey’s heir apparent — she was too physically beautiful. Banks is the first to admit that, as well as drawing viewers in, her supermodel status can be intimidating. “One woman told me that, at first, she didn’t want to come on the show, because she couldn’t understand that a woman like me could talk about obesity,” Banks said after the episode.

Banks has consistently looked for ways to subvert the airbrushed perfection of her model image. From admitting she has irritable bowel syndrome, or talking about farting with Janet Jackson (“I’m very gassy”), to proving she has cellulite by baring her dimpled booty to the audience, she has made a big-sister style of goofiness part of her act. But is it enough?

Banks has admitted that she has become more rounded since starting the show. “Television executives think it’s better when I’m at 155lb [11st 1lb] — at 145lb [10st 5lb], they feel I’m not as relatable,” she has said. Then, last month, unflattering snaps surfaced of the former Sports Illustrated cover girl looking dumpy in a swimsuit. Banks, who is 5ft 10in, admits to weighing 160lb [11st 6lb] and claims to have put on about 10lb since giving up the catwalk for good in 2005. However, the shots, taken with a long lens while she was on holiday in Australia, suggested she had put on a whole lot more than that. Worse still was the reaction in the press. Headlines such as “Thigh-ra Banks”, “America’s Next Top Waddle” and “Tyra Tops 200lb” accompanied the snaps. Many celebrities would have checked themselves into a colonic spa and remained there until the offending flab had disappeared.

But not Banks. Rather than be cowed by the hurtful remarks, she confronted them head on. Showing the media-savvy attitude that has helped her become a daytime sofa queen, she cleverly capitalised on the controversy. First, she denied that she had put on weight and claimed that bad camera angles were to blame for her bloated appearance. Then she broadened the issue, relating it to women in general. “I get so much mail from young girls who say, ‘I look up to you, you’re not as skinny as everyone else, I think you’re beautiful.’ So, when they say that my body is ugly and disgusting, what does that make those girls feel like?”

From the pages of People magazine, and on CNN, Banks led a national debate on female body image, which culminated, earlier this month, in a memorable episode on her own talk show. Instead of the hipster jeans and silky blouses she usually favours, Banks chose to wear the swimsuit from the paparazzi shots. Looking curvy but by no means fat, she twisted her body into different positions, first sucking it all in, then letting it all hang out, to demonstrate how the wrong pose or camera angle can create unflattering pictures.

She then gave an impassioned speech: “Luckily, I’m strong enough and I have a good enough support system. I love my Mama, and she has helped me to be a strong woman, so I can overcome these kinds of attacks — but if I had lower self-esteem, I would probably be starving myself right now. That’s exactly what is happening to other women all over this country.” Still in the swimsuit, her voice shaking with emotion, Banks went on to attack those “who have something nasty to say about women built like me ... women who have been picked on, women whose husbands put them down, women at work or girls at school. I have one thing to say to you: Kiss my fat ass”.

The audience reacted with rapturous applause and chants of “Tyra! Tyra! Tyra!”. Not only was the stunt a ratings winner, it proved that, far from being an airheaded former lingerie model, Banks could seize the agenda and run with it.

Instead of damaging her career, the swimsuit incident has been just what she needed. As skinny models stalk the international runways and the size-zero debate rages in America and Europe, the issue of female body shape has never been more potent. And right at the centre of the debate is Miss Banks. The supermodel who made millions from looking better in lingerie than anyone else, who was an icon of female perfection, has made herself into an icon of normality. Who would have thought it?

America's Next Top Model and The Tyra Banks Show are on Living TV

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