Tyra Banks has opened up about an intriguing twist in her life narrative—a revelation that leaves us utterly unable to fathom an alternate reality where she bore a different name! During the April 15 edition of "Today with Jenna & Friends," the 51-year-old supermodel and media mogul, with her usual candor, confided in co-host Jenna Bush Hager, 43, about her near-miss with a different moniker and her sentiments towards it.
"Tell me about 'Tyra,'" Bush Hager inquisitively prompted. "Did you ever embrace it while growing up?" Without hesitation, Banks disclosed that her now-iconic name was not the family's initial choice during their brainstorming session. "But my mom shared that she almost named me 'Kelly Banks,'" Banks revealed.
Bush Hager, visibly taken aback, echoed, "Kelly Banks?" struggling to envision the legendary model and entrepreneur under such a vastly different aura. Banks herself couldn't resist pondering the same. "I often wonder, if I were Kelly Banks, what kind of life I might have led," she reflected, whimsically channeling the energy of a cheerleader as she playfully recited, "It sounds like a cheerleader's name," even spelling it out in a melodic tone. "It feels like pure joy!"
Bush Hager noted that Kelly was indeed a popular name during their upbringing, and Banks concurred, recalling that girls named Kelly were typically "the queens of the playground" back then. She even fondly reminisced about Barbie dolls named Kelly, a testament to their omnipresence during their childhood.
As the discourse veered towards names and personal reinventions, Banks also spilled the beans on the various permutations of her name she experimented with during her nascent modeling days. "When I embarked on my modeling journey, I was 'Tyra Banks,' but upon reaching Paris, I felt the urge to shed the 'Banks,' adopting simply 'Tyra,'" she elucidated.
However, this mononymous branding was a fleeting phase. "Later, when I ventured into acting on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' I noticed that the credits listed me as 'Tyra' only, and it seemed unprofessional to me, prompting me to revert to 'Tyra Banks,'" she recounted.
Truly, whether she's Tyra, Kelly, or anything in-between, her magnetic energy and indelible legacy shine through, leaving an indelible mark on our collective consciousness.
