Tyra Banks slyly dropped big hint she was leaving DWTS weeks before her shocking announcement
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TYRA Banks may have teased her plans to leave Dancing With The Stars well in advance.
Fans and executives alike were shocked by the model’s planned departure from DWTS, but a resurfaced interview suggests it’s been a long time coming.
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Tyra, 49, gave an interview with Entrepreneur last month, and clearly stated her ambition to move away from showbiz.
In the interview, the star spoke about her ice cream business Smize & Dream, and made it evident that her focus stood with the company.
Tyra’s first hint about wanting to dedicate herself fully to business was her explanation that she wanted to start the endeavor 18 years ago, but put it to one side to focus on The Tyra Banks Show.
She stated: “I know that you can’t start two businesses at the same time, and have them both be successful- they’re both going to fail!
“So, I had to make a choice, and I said, ‘Let me put this ice cream business plan on the shelf.'”
The star also revealed: “I would love to teach at Harvard Business School,” suggesting that her passion had moved away from presenting.
Most importantly, she confirmed that she had big plans for Smize & Dream.
The TV personality confirmed: “The plan is definitely to scale, and to scale in a big way.”
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Tyra also claimed that she was inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow, who has moved away from being in front of the camera and rebranded as a businesswoman.
She shared: “There’s something that just makes me feel like runways and photo shoots and covers, all of that was nice, but I would love for that to be an asterisk on my legacy.
“The main thing [would be for people] to be like, ‘She’s an ice-cream entrepreneur. Do you know she used to be a model?'”
SURPRISE!
An insider source claimed that Tyra’s announcement to leave DWTS was very unexpected.
Tyra shared the news to TMZ as she left a grocery store in Santa Monica, California
She told the outlet: “I think it’s time. I think my heart and soul are in my business. It’s also into producing TV.
“I really, really want to focus on my business and you can’t do that while hosting a show.
“So you’ll see me creating things, not just hosting.”
The insider exclusively shared with The U.S. Sun that show executives were completely caught off guard by the announcement.
The source said with a laugh: “Tyra announcing her exit [to TMZ] too was fascinating.
“Everyone knows how Disney and ABC corporate love to have PR plans in place for show announcements to manage the flow of news.”
The source went on: “But her chatting outside of a grocery store seemed very much like she had not followed that corporate-style strategy
“This seemed like another Tyra ‘I’ll do it my way move’, because ‘I do what is right for me.'”
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