While Tyra Banks is happy to discuss bathroom habits on her daily talk show, and is frank and candid about her modeling past on
America's Next Top Model, she can sometimes be reticent about other elements of her personal life, such as some family matters or romantic relationships.
She has not yet spoken publicly about a major development for her family: her brother Devin has been deployed to Iraq.
Devin Banks, Tyra's older brother, is an Air Force cadet, and will be leaving for Iraq on August 9. Tyra and her mother, Carolyn London, who has appeared on both Tyra's talk show and America's Next Top Model, shared a send-off dinner with Devin and his wife. The dinner took place at the Chin Chin restaurant on 49th Street in New York City, where Tyra has recently relocated to for filming her talk show.
Fans of America's Next Top Model will recall she referenced her brother's military career in Cycle Three when the models took a trip to Japan. She mentioned that her brother had been stationed there at one point. He has been in the service for over fifteen years, and she has accompanied him to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Apparently, the two grew up with the usual sibling rivalry, and Devin, the older of the two, appears to have done a lot of normal brotherly tormenting of his younger sister. However, that seems to be long in the past, and the two are said to be quite close now. Obviously, the send-off was an emotional one, with reports of lots of “hugging and kissing” as the family prepared to see their soldier off to Iraq.
Whether Tyra will decide to open up about the situation on her show is not yet known, but there is no doubt that her fans will be hoping for a safe return for her brother, and all the other men and women of the Armed Services currently deployed in Iraq and abroad.
- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Page Six
(Image courtesy of CW)