Top Model contestant on brink of bankruptcy

BY CATH BENNETT

New Zealand's Next Top Model wannabe Teryl-Leigh Williams-Bourke could be catwalking her way out of major money worries.

The stunning south Auckland mum-of-two, who's been signed by model agency Clyne Management, is getting invaluable exposure as a finalist in the hit TV3 reality show.

A cover girl career offers fortune as well as fame making it all the more attractive to Teryl-Leigh, who was forced to sign on to a scheme stopping creditors pursuing her for debts.

The No Asset Procedure an alternative to bankruptcy allows people to have debts frozen for 12 months, before having them discharged.

To qualify for it, a person has to have no realisable assets but have debts from $1000-$40,000 which they have no means of repaying. Restrictions are placed on their financial affairs while they are on the scheme, which comes under the Ministry of Economic Development.

Teryl-Leigh's name appeared on the No Asset Procedure (NAP) register at the end of January, as she joined the 12 other New Zealand's Next Top Model finalists settling into the luxury Top Model mansion on Auckland's North Shore.

Her financial woes became the subject of critical comments on internet message boards after the show's first episode, 10 days ago. The 23-year-old has now returned to her Manukau home, where she lives with her partner and young children.

Approached at the small bungalow earlier this week, Teryl-Leigh declined to comment.

But in Friday night's episode of the show, in which she won a major challenge and was made the star of a campaign for Max clothing range, she spoke about the difficulties of supporting two children, aged three and one.

"I'm constantly buying for my children, I never have money for myself," she admitted as the contestants were presented with a range of beauty products.

"It was amazing to have all these goodies thrown at me. It made me feel special."

A TV3 spokeswoman said contestants' finances were irrelevant to New Zealand's Next Top Model.

"That's her own private circumstances, it doesn't have anything to do with the show," said publicity manager Jacqui Loates.

"She went through the application process, met the criteria and her financial situation doesn't have any bearing on that."

Teryl-Leigh became an early star of the series as viewers saw her squaring up to another wannabe Hosanna Horsfall, bursting into tears because she missed her kids and being lavished with praise by the judges.

The show, a version of the American series featuring Tyra Banks, has quickly become a ratings winner with almost 270,000 tuning in for the opening episode.

The winner will get a contract with CoverGirl, an eight-page magazine spread, and will be signed to 62 Models be flown to Sydney and New York for meetings with top agencies.

Part of the show's appeal is cattiness between the girls and sharp words from the judges. Contestant Delaney MacDonald quickly experienced how the claws can come out after judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree dismissed her attempt at a catwalk strut saying she looked "like an air hostess who doesn't want to serve anyone".

The pretty 22-year-old admitted she heard many of the girls gossiping about each other.

"(But) there wasn't so much bitchiness, it was more a clashing of personalities," Delaney told Sunday News.

"I don't think anyone was trying to be bitchy but if you get all those girls together from small-town New Zealand, from the big city, those who want to model, those who are still unsure, then there's always going to be a personality clash. A few of girls got themselves into friendship groups, but of the final 13 there was no one who had been particularly tight-knit."

Delaney said around half the girls who made it to the final 33 and appeared in the debut episode had done modelling before and that most of the final 13 had some sort of experience in the field.

Despite making it through the first chop to become one of the 20 who had promotional pictures taken, she was axed in the last Queenstown elimination.

"Our judges are a lot less diva-ish than those on the American version of the show," Delaney said. "In America they like to take a girl who is terrible and see how far she can go, here they seem to want to do less of the starting from scratch thing."

Auckland University student Delaney has a few picks of who will last the longest in the show, the second episode of which aired on Friday.

"Tiffany (Butler) is amazing, she doesn't know how gorgeous she is, and Christobelle (Grierson-Ryrie) has a great career ahead of her," she said. "Ajou Chol was just stunning and Rebecca Rose (Harvey) has just got a beauty you can't imitate."

Finalist Rebecca Rose Harvey is said to have admitted on a webpage on Facebook that she didn't win New Zealand's Next Top Model.

In the posting, which has since been removed, the 19-year-old says she "really didn't mind leaving" and "it's good to be free and all and I made it back just in time to go to uni for my final year".

- © Fairfax NZ News