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This is the FCB Podcast Network. Areas that we won't was made, and then we won't to say, oh, we got it? Does No one can take that? Owen, don't be okay. Area that we won't was bad, then we won't to say, oh we got it does No one can take that? Owen, don't ma, don't be okay. Hey, j L T y FAM. I'm so glad you're tuning into this episode with Victoria Henley. You're not gonna want to miss that. Her story is incredible and it's very concerning. But I did want to warn you a little bit about the audio for today. I was having some connection issues and wall I was able to edit most of it. There might be a few moments in this episode where the my audio in particular seems to cut in and out just for a couple of seconds. The total time is not very long, maybe ten or twelve seconds of jinky audio, but I wanted to let you know. I do know that that was happening, and I did my best to edit it out, and the parts that couldn't be edited out, I think you'll be able to fill in the very brief blinks. Just wanted to give you that warning, but don't let that stop you from listening to this episode. You're definitely want to going to hear Victoria. Let's go te Why just listen to yourself with Kira Davis. I am your host, Kira Davis, and this is the podcast where we take hot topics, hot button ideas, and we discuss the talking points on those ideas and we draw those talking points all the way out to their logical conclusion. But today is a plus episode of Jailty Plus. That means that we deviate from our normal format of me just talking and we invite someone on the show. And today we have someone really special and important on the show. And you'll see why I brought her on the show as we get into her story. But she is a member of the FCB family, which makes her extra awesome. Please welcome to the show, Victoria Henley. She is the host of the Backstage Past podcast here in FCB Radio. She is a model, a feminist, and she is absolutely gorgeous. And Victoria, before I give you a chance to let the listeners hear your beautiful voice, I just want to apologize for how long it's taken us to set up this podcast. We have been avoiding each other and just missing each other for months. So thanks so much for being on show. Yes, good things are worth the way always, so I'm saying happy. I want to mention thanks Victoria, and I want to mention also I forgot that she is actually a former contestant on America's Next Top Model, which was one of my favorite chats back in the day. So I do want to ask you, Victoria, how did you get involved in modeling. I've seen pictures of you, we've never met person. You're very tall and very beautiful, so that seems obvious. How did you get directed into modeling? Of course? Well, first I just want to say, Kira, it's so nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you. Darvio calls you the Queen, and rightfully so because you've just you do so many awesome things, and I've listened to your show so many great points. So thank you. It's an honor to be on here and kind of shake up, you know, and change up the format a little bit. Yeah, as far as my journey in modeling goes, it's it's been a wild ride, for sure. I am the daughter of my mom is a biology chemistry major worked for a pharmaceutical company, from a family of you know, doctors and whatever, lawyers, Indian chiefs. And my dad is a I think the first person in his family to go to college. He's a veterinarian and so not from fashion, not at all, the nepo baby thing like they talk about I was, but I was always interested in it from a very early age. I would get Barbie dolls and put on fashion shows with them. So it kind of started, I guess you could say, when I was just a little bald, regular baby, you know, just like every baby is, and I was out at a diner with my mom and this agent comes up and gives a business card and they're casting for some baby campaign. It was for Baby Gap, actually, and it's crazy you hear about stuff like this happening. Sometimes it can be shady and you have to watch it, but it was legitimate, and so thus my little baby modeling career began and I did Walmart, baby baby Gap, all that stuff. And then my career came to a hiatus when I refused to smile anymore. Babies need to smile, so I quit modeling doing the baby stuff. But when I got older, it was kind of kismet. I always had this interest. It didn't come from anywhere. I didn't. Thank god I didn't have stage parents that were pushing me, because I feel like, you know, you kind of have to let kids decide the things that they want to do. But I always just gravitated toward fashion. You know. It was kind of the kid. I liked Shakespeare, I liked you know, I kind of liked a little bit of everything, and it was different for the place I grew up in. But I would just put on these little fashion sh with my dolls. I would get Vogue magazine. I had a subscription when I was like seven, I think was my first subscription. And I saw this commercial and my I saw this beautiful girl on the commercial, and I felt I just felt like a connection to her somehow. I don't know, I don't know why. It's as cheesy as it sounds, but my mom was in there and she said, that looks like Lindsay, who was actually a relative, a distant relative of hour. She was like, I could swear that's Lindsay all grown up. I've seen her when she was a kid. So it turns out that was my cousin. It was my cousin, Lindsay distant cousin on this commercial and we get in touch with this her mom. My mom gets in touch with her mom. So Lindsay was a model with Ford Agency, which is still a big agency, one of the biggest at the time, and her mom said, Lindsay teaches model lessons to aspiring models, and so my mom an awesome mom, like the best. You know, I know a lot of people's I mean, you know, thank the Lord for good moms. But my mom was like, Okay, I'm going to take you to these lessons. It was two hours each way, two times a week, and she would say, and I live for these lessons. I live for them, and I want to learn the business of fashion. And I wanted to just, you know, soak it all up. So I'd go to these things. I would walk, I would pose, I just had the time of my life. And my cousin would sit me in front of the show America's Next Top Model, and I would watch it. Looking back, I mean, it's I love the show. I'm happy for that. I don't like to trash it too much. But looking back, so toxic, I mean, so toxic. These girls just chewing each other up and I was like, oh no, Lindsay, that show's for crazy girls. You know, I'm not doing that show. And she was like one day, you know, one day you might and as you know, luck would have it, or luck or whatever divine intervention. I was meant to be on the show because I was at the gym and there was this little little commercial. It was just like a video of a business card with the location of it that said, do you want to be on America's Next Top Model, you know, come to Tallahassee, Florida. So I went. I waited in line. I think one hundred and fifteen thousand people audition that year. It was unprecedented because they opened up online auditions and I kept making it through the cap and I was scared to death. I got to a point I didn't even want to be picked. I was just like, you know, I was from a small town, one traffic light, you know, farmer on one side of my family, and I had not been exposed to things like that. But surely enough, Tyra Banks especially really vouched for me being on the show. And it's been a wild ride. It's been a wild ride ever since. So no regrets, and that's kind of how the origin story of it, if you will. And where are you from? I didn't ask that. You say you're from a small town. Where are you from? I am? I am. I was born in Macon, Georgia. I don't know if you've ever heard of that before. It's a little were you really, Okay, Okay, it's a nice So it's a nice town. It's a nice little town close to Atlanta, not you know, too close in all the craziness. But I was born there and my my parents started a veterinary clinic in Griffin, so that was where I grew up technically, and then we moved to open a vet practice in my dad's hometown, which is very very small, very provincial, very agrarian, two thousand people, one traffic light. In all the years, I think they just had their cess with Centennial, I think. And in all that time, the population hasn't really declined or increased. It just is a consistent little small town. And and so, you know, growing up, you always like I always kind of wanted to see more. I knew there was more out there. I wanted to get out. I wanted to expand my horizons. But I'm happy I have those roots too, because you know, if you have that and you're kind of rooted and you have your surrounded by good people, I think it gives you a good foundation before you go out and you're exposed to just all this all this crazy stuff. So Cockwit Georgia, I don't know if I'm sure you've If you've heard of cockwit, I'm going to be very surprised. But you blink and you miss it. No, you blink and you miss it. You're going and not distant cocklit. I love y'all if cockwit people are listening to this. But yeah, the cockwit people will admit. It's that town that you pass through going to Panama City. Typically that's that's what a lot of people know. But it's got some good Uh, it's got it's a mural capital of the world. We have a lot of murals on my family, and I have a pecan orchard so we grow pecans and so it's been really cool, like that part of life, you know, seeing it's like a whole different world, you know, compared to the to the big cities. So let me get this straight. Your mom is a she's a biologist. She is, So my mom is she Valda Korean or saluted. I know she's very smart. My mom's very cerebral and very you know, but she's one of those people that she's smart, but she's not a smarty pants and she's she's the she's I love the best kind of people, but she's she is just the best, and you know, she's she's been so supportive of me and just her and herself. She worked with merk Sharp and Dome. That was primarily her career, and then she helped start the Family Veterinary Clinic and I got out of kind of a bad school situation, so she homeschooled me. I started dual enrollment with college when I was about sixteen. She was really instrumental in all of that. I mean, she, you know, gay so many sacrifices, as so many moms do, and then it's kind of funny what she ends up doing. Now, what she ended up doing. I started a fashion production business, and it kind of organically worked out because I was after America's next top model. Agencies would pay me to come in and train their models. Kind of a full circle moment, just like my cousin Lindsay did with me, and so my mom you know, has this background of all this science stuff. Definitely not fashion. But I eventually ended up at this show and we had probably one hundred models, and it was a show I was producing, and about thirty five models were waiting on photo shoots, which is a lot. Any photographer will tell you you're crazy if you booked that many shoots in a day. But our photographer didn't show up, didn't call, didn't text, didn't show up. And my mom has a good camera and she's always had an eye for photography, so she marches in and takes all these pictures. And the feedback I got was insane. People were like, we want to book a shoot. We want her to book our family portraits, We want to so fast forward. She is a fashion she's a full time photographer now and we're business partners. So she does for fashion Week, she does for home shopping networks. It's the other day. We were in Orlando, that's actually where we were, and she was shooting like a pet campaign and there's this shihuahua dressed as Alice in Wonderland and she's taken. There's a crowd of people and my mom and I joke with her, you're putting your biology to gree to good use. And she's she cracks me up. But she's such a good I tell her, it's what she was born to do. She loves it. People love her. She's got this honeyedp like southern accent. You just you love her. You meet her. She to know her is to love her. And she's such a good I feel like in fashion you get some pervy, like not all guy photographers, but some guys get into photography and it's like eh, but people feel good sending like their girls to her because she's so she's so great, you know. So, so that's what she does. And we work together and we travel together. So couldn't ask for anything more, you know, working with my best friend, my mom, that is amazing. And also you said your family now owns a picad we do. It sounds crazy, It sounds like I'm making this stuff up. People asking yes, People are like, oh, are you sure about all this? Yes? I mean as if we didn't in all our spare time we have we have a pecan orchard. So my my dad, who you know he was, he's always just a really smart guy and he comes from a family of farmers and he always wanted he wanted to be a farmer. But his parents said, listen, you you have these you know, you have these opportunities to get scholarships, not saying that you know, your ability to go to college determines whether or you're smart, because there was all different kinds of smart, but they knew he was the type of smart that it would you know, going to college would be beneficial to him. So he went to University of Georgia. He's the first person in his family to ever go to college. So he always loved animals, big, big animal person and he did the vet thing. But that always was that gnawing thought of like I want a farm, I want to farm, I want to have something of my own like that. So my my mom actually is the one that said, you know, my parents had pecan trees growing up. Well, if you want a farm, rust, so let's do let's meet in the middle here. Let's maybe do a pecan orchard and we can sell some pecans and all of that. We'll have a few, you know, we'll have maybe I don't know how many acres she wanted, maybe a few dozen acres. So my dad decides to partner up with her brother and there they get all this land, like hundreds of acres, right, and so we ended up with all these pecans, just tons of pecans, and then they task my mom and I with going around and selling them. And I'm like, you guys are gonna have to pitch in a little bit. But man, we would go to any time I didn't have work going on, which was very rare. I basically cut out like the the you know, going to movies, which I love, exercising, and I was selling those pecans, you know, meeting with chefs and that is a character builder and very humbling because, let me tell you the Gordon Ramsey type persona, that's not all chefs again, a lot of chefs are are is worse than fashion. I'm gonna tell you what, but uh it worst. I know. I didn't think anything could be meaner than fashion, probably politics, but man, we're chefs, so I was I somehow inadvertently became the chef liaison. So I would like negotiate with the chefs and send them invoices and like pedal the pecans around and take samples and we would sell them at bears and festivals on the weekends, and you know, it's a really it gave me a whole understanding. So we do the pecans and in fashion. I didn't realize how. I don't like to use the word privileged because I worked really hard, but it's almost it's so much easier to make money in that than it is. It makes me feel for the people who feed this country, like the farmers and the food vendors, because people always want to negotiate the lowest ball price like it's hard, it's really really hard. And so it gave me. It gave me a big empathy for people who work in food service. It gave me a big empathy for food vendors. And you know, I think things like that. It makes you a humbler person, it makes you a more well rounded person. I'm not I don't have as much time to do the pecan and it was driving me just absolutely crazy. So I told my uncle, like, you got to step up. You. I appreciate what you're doing, but you gotta start selling some pecans too, because I'm going crazy here. But yeah, it's called Vicky Lynn pecans and you can look it up. And if you guys ever want to shot pecans, we give a percentage to like the animal Rescues that we work with and do some stuff for good causes. So in our spare time, that's our our little side hustle going on. Okay, just listen to yourself. Listeners. I don't know if you feel bad about yourself yet, but hang on. I mean that what an incredible family and what an amazing American story. I love it. By the way, I just want to quickly plug your Instagram. It's Victoria Henley, a G and L E E Y and her mom is at Lynn Henley Photography as well. And of course she just said Vicky Lynn pons that's very with an I, So everybody go and look at that stuff. Well, I did want to ask you about because you went to America's Next Top Model and you were thrust into, you know, the fashion industry again as a young as a teenager and a young adult. And but you're from this small town, you're from this small area what And I know a little I live in southern California. I've worked in TV and film a little bit, so I know a little bit about how crazy reality TV can be. In fact, my next door neighbor is one of the was one that she just moved one of the Orange County Housewives. So we live like right in reality TV land, right, So I know a little bit about how crazy it is. But what was one thing that really surprised you when you went into filming America's Next Top Model? You know, I think there were so many different elements of filming that that really surprised me. I think when you're watching a show like that, a lot of people tend to think whether it's Real Housewives or it's a competition show like a Top Model. When it was on, I think they see a certain element of glamour in it, that it's just a glamorous thing and you're in this whole different world and it's just you know, people are catering to you left and right, and it's just you know, dreamland. And then afterward you're skyrocketed forward to all of your hope, you know, your wildest hopes and dreams come true and and it's it's really the opposite of that. There's something there's kind of an air of doom and gloom when you're in that environment. It's not a positive environment. And you know, there's been kind of a campaign on TikTok and for you know, the the younger you know, gen Z seeing reruns of America's Next Top Model, And I didn't really I sort of thought when I did it, I signed my my NDA's and I signed my contracts and it it basically I think the words psychological torture were in the contract. I mean, that's that's not disconcerting. I don't know it is. So they were like, you know, you go insane if you whatever. We're not responsible if you. And you know a lot of people have done things like that and it's made them crazy. So a lot of the the things that they tell the young women, I mean, I know when I went on, they said, this is not just a modeling competition. This is a reality show. And if you're not ready for that and leave right now. You need to engage in drama. If you're not going to talk about certain people, then that's not going to go well, you're gonna get eliminated. So there's a lot of manipulation going on by the way of producers. And and you know, I was this kid, had just barely turned old enough to be on the show. I had been from a small town, I had done modeling, you know, and I had done things but my experience was very had been very good, and thank goodness for that, because some people get get involved with the wrong people too young, and it just it just kind of spirals downward. But I had been sheltered to a certain extent, and I got there, and you know, the producers said, well, who would you not want to be a roommate with? And of course, you know, I felt pressured to say whoever's name that I thought I wouldn't get along with, So of course they put me in the room with that person. I would get maybe on average, about two or three hours of sleep a night, so they made sure that, you know, you weren't getting sufficient sleep, so you would be emotional. You know, they want that, They thrive off that that makes good reality TV. There were time that there was a whole story arc of me having an eating disorder, and they would give me food and I would try to eat the food, but they would call me for like my on the flight interviews, and when I'd come back, my food would be gone and I wouldn't get food again. And so it was one of those things that I'm a lot more open about now because there's been it's you know, been a while since the show. There have been a lot of girls since the show that have absolutely trashed Tyra Banks. And I've never done that because I knew what I was getting into. You know, you can't bite the hand that feeds you too much. And I can say that my experience with her, it wasn't it wasn't hideous, it wasn't horrible. She's a business person and she's been through things that have made her the way she is, so I kind of understand now working in the industry where she comes from from that point. But I think that, you know, I'm glad that people are calling out the toxic nature of having a show that should and could be about modeling, it could be about business and industry. And you see it too much as somebody who is such a girl's girl and just really enjoys environments that women are building each other up. You know. I think these producers infantilize people by thinking they want to see women going at each other's throats. You can't get a whole bunch of emotional women together and they can actually get along and have an intelligent conversation, you know, and they pit women and it's just this very like two bit thing that I don't like, and you see it a lot in reality TV, and I think when people see it, they emulate it. They think, like, that's the cool thing to do, and that's gonna you know. So I would like to see you're seeing more reality TV. That's positive. But I think the top model what surprised me most was the manipulation by the producers. They would ask you questions and you could only answer those questions so you could play your part adequately for the show. So I was like the little sheltered mama's girl, and they'd only let me talk about my mom on the show. So when they edited it, I was just this crazy, mom obsessed girl. And looking back, it could have been worse. I could have been the bully. I could have been, you know, and that's never a good thing for us. So people thought I was endearing in a very odd, screwball way, but just seeing how manipulative they were, and I thought they were my friends, I was like, I thought these people liked me, Why did they make me look crazy? It was a real slap in the face and it was something I needed to go through to be tough enough to work in this industry because I'm a whole different woman than I was then, and I'm a lot more intuitive, I'm a lot more sharper, and I owe a lot of it to that experience I went through. It's definitely bittersweet, good and bad for sure. How do you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me Victoria Henley from cycle nineteen of America's Next Top Model for an inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, it's so interesting you say that. My daughter and I are huge fans of The Bachelor franchise, and we watch the shows and I'm always breaking down the edits and the cuts with her, Like, we don't just watch as fans, but I always say, hey, this person's getting a villain that is getting it. We don't. And sometimes, you know, you look at those people and you're like, why, why are they in love? They have absolutely zero chemistry, but you have to understand that everything we see is shaped and we might not be getting the full story. And I guess that is the whole point of it. You know, it's a story at the end of the day. And I was going to ask you, you know, what you learned from that experience, and you sound very mature about it, which is, you know, there's the business side and then there's the side that's fair and right, and you know film and TV isn't really fair and right. It is a business and if you can go And it also sounds like Victoria, you had amazing parents, which is a key to surviving the entertainment industry. So kudos to your mom and dad for that. Absolutely, absolutely, I am such you know, and I realize I think that sometimes when you have such great parents, you take it for granted because you just feel like that's what that's what everybody has, right, great parents. But you know, I feel like I always even even being and I don't like to say sheltered, because I was very open to I mean, my mom would take me to theater, I was involved in Shakespeare, like I was. I was worldly in some ways, and then I was very like sheltered, and I think in the right ways because you know, you see what some people get into in the industry. I mean like Gia, the world's first supermodel, I mean, poor thing just you know, wasn't around God, involved in drugs and the wrong and there's a lot of that. I mean, I every time, I if I had a dollar for every time I've been offered some hard drug, you know, it's and it's it's you're surrounded not always by the best stuff. So if I had not had good parents, or if I had had parents that were the pushy stage thing and you know you're going to be famous one day, it would have turned out very differently because I would have been getting into it. As they say on The Bachelor, for the wrong reasons, right, isn't that what they always say, You're not here for the right reason. I'm that kind of Bachelor fan too, But but yeah, I'm so lucky to have had such grounded, smart, good hearted parents. My mom is just I mean a saint for putting up with me and all the stuff that that she's done, just the person that she is, so so blessed, so thankful to be in that position. And uh, and I you know, what did I do to deserve such great parents? And then some people just don't get that that blessing, that opportunity. But definitely on the Bachelor. I've watched The Bachelor too, and sometimes it's hard to stomach. When you can see some of them, you can tell they're just like crappy people. It's like, oh, you're just not a great person, and you can tell. But then you can tell some when there was one girl and man, she used to be a news anchor, like she she had this career that was just like popping. She was, she was doing well, and she went on the Bachelor. I guess for you know, I don't know, probably the social media followers and maybe some people actually go on there fine love who knows, but she was on there and you could tell they were just making her a villain. And the way that and people online were tearing this poor girl apart. She lost her job and so it's very real. It Also the most disconcerting thing to me is that how quickly people buy whatever it is that those producers are selling them. They don't even question it, you know. So I love that you watch it with your daughter like that, like Okay, this person's being edited, because if you're that, it shows you how easily duped a lot of people are. I mean, look at you know whatever media figures. I mean some cancel call. I'm glad some cancel culture is happening. But then you also have this stuff that like people get canceled over somebody said something and there's no proof and it's like their whole career is canceled. So I feel like people buy things very, very easily, and to be a critical thinker, I actually think it's good to watch reality TV and like think about, hey, how might they be manipulating this or or this politician or public figure, Like who's writing what they're saying to me? Like what's the you know? So it's it's a whole different world. It's real TV, man, It's it's not for the it's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. Yeah, reality TV is not real. It's not real. It's just another form of entertainment. And I think when you can watch it as that you know, and everybody engages in it voluntarily, so there is there is that. I guess I'm just making excuses for myself for loving it, but it does feed that that need to peek into people's lives. But I do want to shift gears a little bit here, Victoria, because the reason why actually I've been working so hard to get you on this show is Darvy O shared a really interesting story. Interesting is I use the term loosely about something that happened to you recently, and I want to talk about that because you talk about your sheltered life, your your semi sheltered life. To me, it sounds like a great life. Actually it's you know, it's just enough culture, and we make the idea of being sheltered, we make that into something bad. There's one thing. There's living in a bubble, right, and we know that people in New York City or LA they live in their bubbles and they don't really know people outside those bubbles. But then there's living sheltered, and that is what your parents and your family are supposed to do protect you from, you know, the big bad woof the monster's knocking at the door. There's nothing wrong with that until you get old enough to stand on your own legs and face you know, the those monsters out there in the real world on your own. So you had this what I called appropriately sheltered child. Now as a as a model and an entrepreneur and someone who is you know, running your own business, you're out in some of the most dangerous places in America. Yeah. I mean we might look at you and say, oh, she's a model, she's doing glamorous things. But I mean, hey, you're in Laura. I mean, you're you know today, you're in Orlando. It's not like you're always sitting in Paris. You know, on the runway, you go to where the work is, and sometimes that can mean you're putting yourself in dangerous situations and you've got to be aware. But recently you were attacked, and the outcome of that has really relates to I think what is happening across the country when it comes to people experiencing crime and becoming the victims of crime. And I really want to drill down on that because I think when people hear their story, they're going to be there. It's just going to be one more example of how chaotic things are getting. So can you please share with us the story of what happened to you? Of course, of course, yeah, it is it's a I mean, you mentioned, you know, I'm in Orlando, and I love it. I love cities like Orlando and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. And I love my little cabin like two hours south of Atlanta. You know, Paris. I mean, I not that I'm planning on being like a influencer for Paris or anytime soon or like they're tourism spokesperson, but I do Paris Fashion Week. I don't love Paris. I feel like people look at you in Paris like you're a walking shopping mall and we I mean everywhere you go, somebody's trying to stick their hand in your backpack. The pickpocketing there. You know, it's another one of those places that people say is so glamorous. I mean, the louver is nice, you know, the shows that I go to are nice, but just out and about. It's a congested city. There's a lot of crime, there's a bedbug infestation. You know, it's not the best. So I tell people like, you know, we tend to glamorize, and I don't know why we glamorize these mega megacities. And for a while New York was, and there's I mean, there's several reasons for that. Regardless of where you sit. I'm very in the middle on the political spectrum, there's things on both sides that I am just exhausted with. I know, like many people are. And I'm not on a here to be political, but I'm about as independent as it gets. But there are very political reasons why New York is a cesspool right now. It's honestly, it's horrible. As somebody who went there, you know, the news about that isn't the news overblows things, but it's not overblowing what's going on in New York. So I've been going to New York for a very very long time from my work, and I go twice a year and I spend you know, I spend a long time there. It can be anywhere from half a month to a month. And just working consistently. You know, there's not one second unaccounted for. It's work, work, work, it shows. I produce shows, I do pop up events, I do contract work for like after parties. I have a you know, so just go, go, go go. It's it's very little sleep. It's sometimes a whole lot of drama. Again, not glamorous for anybody. Don't don't be jealous. Ohoh yeah, it's a lot. So anyway. But it's New York and it's always been it's been fine, you know, So we went, I've we've been taking care. I don't know if I mentioned this, but my mom's mom My Mimi. She's almost about to be ninety, and she was, you know, she's still My grandpa has very advanced dementia. But she for sixty years, you know, she was that slaving over a hot stove. You know. He was all, we're not living this house, you know, and she finally just got tired of it, and she said, I want to travel. You know, I'm this late in life. I want to travel. So she's been with us. He has caregiver. She's been with us for three years and we've been taking care of her and she goes everywhere with us. So as if the logistics aren't hard enough dragging around this very elderly lady. But she's she's the sweetest and she loves it. She loves to go, she loves to eat out, she loves the show. She's having a blast. So she my Memi. At the end of New York Fashion Week, Mimi says, I want the New York experience. What's the New York I'm like, oh boy, what is the New York experience? But I thought, you know, I'd never really had a bad problem there. I was staying at the Hyatt Place Times Square, and I usually am not like I try to be classy. I'm gonna call them out, Hiatt Place, Time Square, you guys suck awful. But anyway, we were staying here and promised me. Yeah, you know, I mean they so they promised me. At the hotel, everything was fine. You know. The the employees had been asking because they saw me come in and out with this crazy like black swan makeup you know, every day and all my clothes, and they're like, what do you do? What are you doing? You know? And so I told I'm pretty open. I like to network with people. I like to meet new people. So we had exchanged you know, Instagrams and stuff with the people that worked at the hotel. But I would notice that some of them. There was there was one I think his name was like Hakeem, but he would look at me really funny, and he was always kind of looking and listening and all of that and kind of watching me with all of our stuff, very very expensive stuff. I mean, I'm an entrepreneur, and my stuff is essentially a mobile business. So I have my own DJ equipment, my mom has her photography equipment. I my my all my collection. So anyway, at the very end of fashion week, about a two and a half week you know, stint that we were at this Higatt place, spending a lot of money to be there because I thought it was safe. You know, it's it's a good it's Hiatt, right, what could go wrong? It's not, it's not We're not in the roach motel. So they said we're gonna hold your stuff in the secure holding area, which I was like their breakfast area. And I thought this was was really odd, you know, But anyway, I said okay, So they they got my I said, was it locked? You know, I made them promise me because I'm really neurotic. I took pictures of the luggage tags. I said, is my stuff safe? You know, is this going to be saying oh, yes, ma'am, Yes, ma'am. You know, all locked, all secured. This stuff is safe. So I went out and I took my Mimi on the Staten Island ferry and it was she had fun, you know, we took pictures, we did all of that. We went to the big Hudson Yards mall, you know that that's really pretty there, and walked up on the little glass enclosed step area, and it was it was a nice day, you know. It was nice to have that little respite from she had just been. We had been dragging her to so many work events, and I was happy to see her having fun. And so anyway, we decided, and it was always we never we have always heard, you know, don't take the subway, take ubers, take cabs, you know, don't take the subway. I've never had problems on the subway. Everybody's always been so nice. We just have never had any issues. So I was gonna take me on the subway after all of our little, you know, New York adventures. And we got into the subway, I was gonna go ahead and walk ahead because she's very slow, she has her little walker. So I was going ahead as I do, to check on elevators, to see where ramps might be, to see, you know, when the next train was coming in. So I saw this man. He looked fine. I didn't think anything about him. It's New York. He just looked like some guy in New York. And I start walking past him on the steps, and I always I never like to get too close to people. I'm always kind of you know, you have to be careful. So I passed him and I said excuse me, and I turned kind of my body and when I was faced away from him, I felt this. I didn't know at first that the pain was so tremendous. I didn't know if I had been stabbed or shot. It was. I could feel this crack in my back and I just started flying down the stairs. I mean, I'm not a huge I'm a real tall person. I'm not a huge person. And plus I wasn't I wasn't ready, I wasn't locked up, I wasn't. I just you know, I was not on guard at all. So I was at the top of the staircase and just flew down the staircase, hit every step on the way down. I mean, my face bruised up. My back I ended up getting a fracture in it. But this guy kicked me down the stairs, and it kicked me with such force in the small of my back. I mean it, I truly I was shocked. I've never experienced anything like that in my life. And I was at the bottom of the steps, and when I composed myself and look back up at him, he's just standing there with this smug look. And I'm a pretty I mean, I'm a pretty scrap. But one thing about me is like it's the South Georgia coming out of me. Where the scrappy. I'm a scrappy person, Like I'm a fighter and I want, you know, having something done to me, and I don't have the opportunity to fight back. I'm in New York. I can't have my taser. I can't have anything to defend myself, because you know, God forbid civilians be able to, you know, defend themselves properly. And don't get me started on that. But I start just crawling back up up the steps at this guy. I'm bruised, I'm broken, literally, I hurt, and I'm crawling. I'm not gonna repeat what I said because it's it's not appropriate, but anyway, I'm screaming at this guy with every my my just tremendous pain in my body. I'm crawling and I guess the guy was surprised because he took off running, just you know, coward, and the NYPD heard my screams and they beat me to the punch of a squad of like I mean, it was probably ten of them ran up and just tackled this guy. And the guy is trying to blame me, like I attacked him, like I started it. I mean, they didn't believe the man, of course, but they brought in the police chief I guess that was on duty, and she was taking photos of you know, the bruises, just black and blue already on my back. I mean, it was horrible, you know, just from that one thing, the impact of that, and I was I was just shaking, but I was so I was more angry than I was scared or upset because I was walking this guy get taken off, knowing that probably because of the legal system, he's probably gonna be out on the street doing this again, you know. And I was yelling at him like I'm gonna make sure you so help me God that you stay behind bars, like you're gonna suffer for this. You're gonna suffer for this. I'm yelling at this guys or taking him off, And you know, I talked with the NYPD officers. They rode the subway with me. They escorted me back to the hotel, and it just the night from hell. I mean the worst night of my life. You know, I'm sitting there, I'm in pain. My little grandma is just traumatized, like she can't even She's just panicking, like she can't wrap her head around what's going on. You know, my mom, I mean hearing you know, hearing your kid too, And I mean you're a mom, you know there's no worse than like here and hearing your kids scream. She didn't know if somebody had pushed me onto the tracks, which has been happening a lot on the subways lately. Did anyone at Victoria did anyone around you stop to help or stop to restrain this guy or do anything? Absolutely no one, Absolutely no one. There were so many instances on that trip, and I don't gosh, there's a there's a name of that. What did they call it, like bystander syndrome, right, or something? Where there was a thing where a lady got murdered in a city I think in the seventies. I think it was in New York, being stabbed. Literally it was New York. Yeah, yeah, this is not a not a PSA to go to New York, that's for sure. But she was being stabbed literally to death and people were standing by. Somebody else is gonna get involved. You know, I'm not gonna be that. And and you don't, you know, you don't see that. You don't see that in smaller towns. I mean, stay with you. Smaller towns have their own things. But it's there's there's something happening in bigger cities and you're seeing more of it than used to. It's a lack of humanity. There was another situation that same trip that a woman I think she was trying I ended up getting something stole. This woman essentially slapped me at a crosswalk. She was and that was that same trip I've never had. Yeah, it was we wouldn't and people that these little kit these teens will punk whatever. Teens were videoing it and I can't. I was like, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You ought to be ashamed. But you see people in New York. It used to be when you'd go to New York, like if you were lost and needed directions, people would help you. Right, people were people were like part of gold, tough, but you know, yeah the best people, right, tough, but heart of gold. And that's kind of the vibe you got now people walk around it's almost like zombies. It's like, where has the humanity gone? Where has people have lost? I think his people are so afraid to look other people in the eye, to smile, and eventually, I think you just kind of lose your ability to connect, You lose your you lose the thing that makes you human. And that's happening. It's a very real thing that's happening in New York. I was talking to the cops and these are the NYPD. I mean I've and I said, are you seeing stuff like this a lot more? And they said, within the past few years, they said, it's constant stabbings on the subway, shootings on the subway. Subway people getting they said. A little older man, I think just the last week, was waiting on the train and a man pushed him out, killed him. He got hit by the subway. You know this, I mean, I can't wrap my head around. Later I found out that this man had had had attacked an elderly man and a little girl, and the Manhattan DA got in touch with me and I signed paperwork. I offered to go to COURTAM like, keep this guy locked up, you know, for whatever he can say because of what he's done, make it happen. It's only right. You know, you have these criminals walking free, and it's this whole it's the sanctuary city thing. Like ideally, it's a great concept that refugees would come to a place and have a safe haven and a sanctuary. But what's happening. You have a bunch of criminals, they have no paperwork, they're there. They're running them up in the city. The city's starving, it can't keep up and feed these people. These people are angry and they're they're committing crimes. And it's not this shangri law type thing that these politicians are saying. It is real. People are being attacked, people are being hurt. I'm seeing people out on the streets. So this man was this man that the man that attacked you. Was he a migrant or he was he was an immigrant and he has attacked maybe I think a total of about five people. I know they sent me some work on him, and nobody get this. Everyone was scared by this guy. This, I mean everyone was scared to sign the property. This man was walking free to attack me and had attacked seven year old girl punched her in the face. If that was my kid, that mad, he'd be a dead man. He would be if he did that in Georgia, he'd be to me, he'd be a dead man. That's what I told him to come to Georgia and do that. When I can have my you know, whatever you would, you'd be it. You wouldn't be walking around anymore. You know. That's that's my little Georgia girl coming down. But you you don't, and it's you know, you can get I hate this thing that people are doing every you know, to be to the point that you're so politically correct that criminals are walking around hurting little girls and walking for it. What is this like? And I'm walking around New York and people are shooting up heroin on the street and it's a cesspool and it's scary, and so it's one of those places I really am having to go back for work, but I'm scared. I mean, the last time I had to go it was I don't have panic attacks, but I was shaking, just shaking. I mean I was having to take like CBD, take a shot whatever to even just cope. It was so hard to go back. And so that attack alone has has changed me a lot. I mean it, you know, I've it's changed me. I'm I'm a lot more paranoid. I'm very a lot more distrustful. And then after that, really the attack was bad enough, but this again kind of like my life. It sounds like I'm making this up. But I get back. We we you know, I'm I'm bruised, I hurt. I'm ready to get out of New York. I'm getting you know, I filled out my paperwork. I'm gonna get in touch with the DA and sign whatever I need to make sure this this man is locked up. So I get back to my hotel and I'm ready to pack up all my things. We get our you know, we set my little Mimi up. We go get our truck in Jersey City because the parking in New York. You know, you can't park anywhere in New York. So we pull up and we go to our cart and the bellman brings out this cooler. He brings out my Niemi's a little portable toilet and that's it. And he says, all right, ladies, that's it. You know, bye, We'll see you next time. And I said wait, and he was like giving me the bum's rush like the bombs rush. He was really seemed very nervous, very sketchy, very shady, and this was I don't want to call out the wrong. This is the high up place time Square is where this happened. And I said, well, where's all my things, Where's my clothing collection, where's my DJ equipment, where's my photography? He said, well, this is it. This was all the stuff you had in there. I was like, well, sir, I'm not about to have you explain to me what I had because I know very well, and I had pictures actually saved in my phone of like this is all the stuff that you know that I have. So anyway, I go in the room and my stuff is gone, all my things are gone, and I tried to remain calm. It's very hard to remain calm when I'm hobbling. At this point, I'm hobbling because I didn't know at the time, but I had a fracture in my back. I'm bruised this again the night from Hell. But he said, well check it. I said, well, check in the postal room to see where this stuff is. We opened it. There was nothing there, and I I started to realize something was really wrong. You know, they were acting shifty. There were these three there were three male employees that started whispering to one another something. You know. My my spidy senses were telling me like something's just not right, something has happened. So I checked the doors leading out to the alleyways. They were both wide open, they were not locked. And I saw this rope that looked like a Pulley system, and so I told him, I said, I'm calling the police. I'm called They said, you get out of this room. Stop messing with these doors. I called the NYPD to the scene, and they verified that all of my stuff had been lifted out of the secure holding area. This is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of stuff. This is my mobile business, my livelihood. I mean, this is my livelihood and it's gone. How do you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me Victoria Henley from cycle nineteen of America's Next Top Model for an inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm standing there. You know, there were there was not There was not one. And I'm not trying to be the you know, but I think sometimes you'll get a female police officer and it would have been a nice energy to have there. There were all these guys, so much machismo going on, and I was I was, I mean, I was crying. I was literally broken. I was on the ground sobbing. I mean, my grandmother was just we were all devastated. And they said, mam are you drunk? Mam are you drunk? I've lost everything and I So it was very much a moment like I felt like I had gone back in time to the fifties, Like all of a sudden, I was a hysterical woman, like the the bellmen were, you know, being like, well, she's been acting a little crazy. I'm like, you, guys, I've been robbed. My stuff is gone. You know how just happened to you? Yeah? And they didn't. I was showing them the bruises and they they were so it's it's again, it's that lack of humanity that you get and you don't see, like like in my hometown with the cops. They they're they're cops, but they're they're they're human. You know, they're human, and they understand which area they're gonna I mean, have a little bedside manner. But yeah, I told them what I just went through, didn't. I mean, it's New York. You know, we've had we've had dozens of murders and rapes tonight and whatever. You know, who cares? It was? It was definitely a who cares type thing and to kind of go through that, I you know, we sat there and then I go out to my vehicle and they had given me a ticket. So not only that, but I get a two hundred and fifty dollars ticket on my vehicle for filling out the paper where the cops give me. But it was all it was such a sterile process and they were They verified that some of my bags had been ransacked and like thrown. I saw my broken DJ soundboard. I guess they didn't need it, so they threw it down and shattered it. I mean, this was this was everything and I you know in the aftermath of that, I'll say that was in September. I have spent countless hours with their insurance company. That honestly hurt more than the attack, because at least with the attack, I could look the guy in the face who did that, You know I could. I could not actually was closure to be able to look the man in the face who attacked me and to know, okay, he's at least being taken away. I still don't know who robbed me. The detect I'm going to call some names too, because I'm pissed off, But Detective John Lambnick, you suck too, uh, But he was the NYPD, you know, big cheese. We're gonna find out who did this. He did look at surveillance videos. He had screenshots of people walking off with my bags, and then just ghosted me. And you know, I sent him a very I'm like, you know, maybe I know I don't matter to you, but you need to understand as a as a servant of the community, you know, as a cop, you have a duty. You have a duty to bring justice, and you all are failing. I mean that the NYPD, they's so I think overrun with crime that they have an apathy for it. There's so much of it now that it's almost like it's just this very complacent attitude, and it's sad, it's demoralizing. I left New York. I still haven't seen a dime from insurance. I haven't seen a dime. I mean, multi billion dollar high att company. I mean what I lost was chump even if they could just do like a few reparations, you know, nothing, I've seen nothing, and I've spent so much time having to get together. You know, these these are pieces that I designed that are one of a kind. I have clothing items from designers who've passed away, and this is what I had to remember them by. All my personal clothes, you know, jewelry, all the memory cards from the stuff that we shot. But one thing that I do, I think that that that whole experience I haven't you know, I haven't probably gotten a decent night sleep since then. I'm always like, I'm always on edge, you know, and I I feel like I've been like I went to etiquette school, I did you know, I learned to like be composed and be whatever. So I think a lot of people took my composure and that I'm not just walking around crying. If I could walk around just sobbing all the time, I would, You know, it's it's it changes you. Something like that changes you, and I don't think you ever get back to the way you were before you know, and and you hear about people being victims of attack, and it just never never being the same. And I feel it like I feel that until it happens to you, until you know the robbery was was so violating, and I think until something like that happens to you, you can't fully understand the effects of it. But it got to me to the point that I've always been about work like work has been work has been my boyfriend, work has been my I'm just I'm very work oriented. And I made a statement on my pages that I was I was giving up, i was retiring. I'm done. I said, I'm done. I'm I'm not going to model, I'm not going to produce. I'm not and my clients banded together. My credit cards were stolen, these people stole my underwear, my shoes. I mean I was in a old T shirt and shorts and that was all I had. Clients banded together, My clients who basically keep my business. Like if it weren't for them, you know, I wouldn't even have a business. But it was everything from designers I've worked for, models, I've mentored. They not only sent me messages like telling me what I had meant to them, and like, you know, maybe they were struggling with self confidence and I helped their daughter. And people started asking for my address and sending me stuff in the mail. They were sending me underwear, they were sending me sneakers, they were sending me they I had a person send me a Nicon camera because my mom lost her camera. And at this point, like to be in that humbling spot that my credit cards didn't work, I couldn't even I was having to use little gift cards that I had saved just to eat and feed us because we didn't have anything. They had shut our accounts down. We were just lost. So it gave like that to have people I want to shout out, I'm going to post all this when it comes out, but my clients, I mean, you guys literally are the reason that I kept going because I you know, to have that kindness and it shows you just as bad as humanity can be. And politics and the government and how it just pits us all against each other, and how these big cities are suffering because of their nonsense. There's still so many good humans in this world, and you know, I think it showed me that. And I've kept going, I've kept pushing. I mean, I'm here, I'm still doing stuff, but something like that, it was definitely a defining moment in my life. And you know, to have no real closure from it, and to know that things like that are happening to innocent people and they're going to be happening more and there's really nothing we can do about it, and that's sad. You know, it's really sad. Did okay? Two questions? Did so? What happened to the man who pushed you down the stairs? Has he been identified? Is he getting deported? What situation? And with the with the thieves? Were they were the cops able to connect with the employees to the robbery or did they just walk away? From the screenshots I received screenshots that he was a young African American gentleman in a hoodie and I think he had a mask on, but you could see his hands. He was a thin guy. He appeared to be young from what I could see and you could, you know, just see his hands, like a little bit of his arm. So he was one of the robbers. But they never identy and if they did identify the robbers, again the robbery to not have. I'm I'm a big justice person. I'm a big like I for I'm kind, but I you know, justice matters to me. Like I don't like unjust things. I don't. I don't like it when things happen and you don't get closure on them. And that was the biggest you know, it was It's like those movies you watch and at the end you don't find out who killed who and there's no real justice whatever. That's what this, you know, that feeling you get in your stomach when you watch a movie like that and you're like, I want to I want to see a good ending. Well that's how I feel about this robbery. And I honestly, they're never gonna identify these people. Quite frankly, they're out on they're doing this every in New York. You can steal legally up to one thousand dollars worth of things and get away with it per day. You're they're incentivizing crime, like I mean, make it make make it make sense. You know it doesn't. And I'm like, get a damn job, like put this energy. If you could put this hustle into something worthwhile, you could be something. Ah, you know, and uh, but but I'm not gonna get closure. And I have a feeling i'm not. You know, my mom's trying to be she's i mean, bless her, She's like, we're gonna get, you know, We're we're gonna get a Gloria Allred on board, like we're gonna get And I've tried to find like even the lawyers. It's so hard. There's so much bureaucracy. Once you finally get past everybody's forty secretaries, you know you don't, it's just it's so it's been so hard with the robbery. So I you know, I've never been a negative. I feel like this whole thing is maybe a lot more cynical negative person than I used to be. I'm a little more of a glass half empty person, understandably, but I'm just kind of like, I'm not gonna I'm never gonna know. I'm not gonna know who robbed me. I'm not gonna see reparations. I can just find joy in the fact that I had made enough impact on clients to send me thousands of dollars worth of stuff like it was. It was I've never seen anything like at my clients stepping up to the plane and people that saw me online that maybe followed me and I didn't even know them. So that was that was the It wasn't closure, but it was something that restored a little bit of faith in people that there were some good people left. As far as the robbery, I again, John Lamnick, the so called Big Cheese of the New York just a joke. I mean, the NYPD, they may have some good you know, with the people that defended me at the attack, they were they seem decent, but I guess it depends on who you're working with. The ones I had, they were not great. The guy that robbed me, I don't think he's been deported, but he is still in jail in New York and they I'll have to look back at his name. I tried to uh, he was, you know, not a legal citizen, and he's he's still in jail as far as I know, And they had me sign some documents and they said his previous What I found most curious though, is that his previous victims wouldn't sign paperwork locked this guy up. I guess, I don't know if they were afraid of you know, I guess they were there in New York and thought, what if I see this guy again and he has more vengeance to you know? But I'm like, you know that this guy deserves worse than But then he's being locked up. What he's getting free meals, room and board. I mean, that's not it's not enough. You know, it's not enough. Send him back, Send him back to where he came from. I mean, I you know, where he's not here terrorizing people. But it's what you're seeing in New York now is is really it's really sad, and it's really scary. And it's supposed to be this epicenter. It's supposed to kind of represent our nation, like an epicenter of commerce and business and whatever, and it's become a joke. I mean to the point that high fashion houses. When I went to Milan, I was speaking with uh director, a curator of a really big fashion company, and they have completely pulled their show from New York. It's so bad and they're going to along really Yeah, so they're they're going to lose a lot of revenue and you're gonna see even more of that. I mean, and that's one of the biggest it was one of the biggest fashion houses, I mean in the world. And their curator was telling me, you know, we're we pulled from that and we're doing European shows and we're doing other markets. So some changes have to be made. And it's I mean, I'm I'm I guess foolish or crazy enough to keep, you know, to go back. I did go back once after the robbery in February, but I didn't. I mean, I'm surprised I didn't have a stroke. It was just that level of fight or flight the entire time I was there. You know, I don't deserve to live like that, Like I haven't done anything to deserve to feel that way and to have to be in that state of just like, you know, just panic. It's you. I'm so glad you put it that way, that you didn't deserve to have this happen to you. I'm so curious about the people who did not want to sign the paperwork on that attacker. I wonder if that has anything to do with how just assaulted people feel by the by public sentiment and social media. Because look, at the end of this is not a discussion the one that me and you are having, right, it's a discussion about immigration. If this is a discussion about crime, and crime's difficult enough. As you just described, you were hit by two I want to break this down for people. Victoria was hit by two different types of crime that represent two very pressing and present issues in American society right now, on the same day, in the same trip. And so one area of crime is is this migrant who pushed her down the stairs, almost killing her. I mean that just could have been so disastrous. Yeah, and it's not. It has nothing to do with his immigrant status. It has to do with the fact that he didn't need to be there. We have so much of our own crimes, take care. Why are we importing more criminals. There's no reason that guy here, he attacked five other people, including a seven year old girl. There's no reason to protect that man's status in this country. We got enough of our own criminals to go after, so to port that guy so he's not a danger to others. But the other side of that is that then you were attacked right here at home. You know, in this other way, that is becoming a real issue. We have the same problem in Los Angeles with the incentivizing of crime. Nine hundred and fifty dollars a day steal, nothing will happen to you. So here's another issue where now you've been robbed of your property and basically your livelihood by someone who will not be punished because that type of crime no longer matters much crime. In a way, I guess I can empathize a bit with the police that they're just sort of numb to everything because it's like trying to you know, it's like putting a band aid on a gunshot wound. It just nothing helps. But I feel victoria, like this is deliberate. It's your story. Is something I have been talking about on this show. The Consequences is something I talk about on this show a lot. It is the deliberate numbing of a Pikey and of huanity. So the people standing by and looking and not doing anything, or you know that the police who were cruel and cold and distant, even though you were the victim of a crime that you had absolutely no part in, you did nothing to deserve it. You were minding your own business, You weren't doing anything. And what it does is and I think this is, you know, COVID sped this up and that might be on purpose too. It has separated us from our humanity and our ability to care for each other. That affects literally every other aspect. It breaks my heart because to see a young a beautiful young I mean, your looks have nothing to do with it, but you're a beautiful young woman. You know there should be dozens of men leaping to your your defense to protect you. Sure we are not there anymore. No, no, And the result is you are not only distant from your fellow humans, but you personally, Victoria, you're frightened, and you shouldn't have to walk around frightened. This is America, absolutely, I mean, you nailed it. And it's something that I am very very passionate about as well. And it's it's a disconcerting shift. It's kind of the thing that, you know, being in caregiving for my almost ninety year old grandmother, you see some doctors that way too. They get so used to dealing with sick people or whatever that they just they become cold. I think maybe as a coping mechanism or it's and then you see you see the ones that care, and you can tell and it has this it has this ripple effect when you can somehow you know, you can be tough, and you can defend yourself, and but you can still you can still be a productive member of society, and you should and care for your fellow human. I mean, if I see somebody, if I I mean, I've been at bars listening to music before and I've seen a girl that looks drunk out of her mind and a guy like dragging her out, and I'll walk up and I'll say, do you do you know this woman? Like, I'll have security come with me. Let I don't know that person. I could easily just look away, but I don't, and we shouldn't. We're and like you said about chivalry, and that's a whole different can of worms. But you know, I have a lot of men as. Don't get me started. But uh, that is why I try to tell a lot of people think, oh feminist, right, well, she subscribes to every little you know, I'm I'm the type of feminist that I really truly believe. I believe that women need to have their own power whatever whatever that is. You need to have your own You need to this. I think a lot of girls are still being told, oh, he's gonna protect and provide, oh, you know, protect. I have never felt protected by a man. I've felt completely, you know, I've I've felt complacency. I've had men slam the door in my face while I'm trying to get my little Mimi through the door. And I'm not man bashing. I've known a lot of good men. But I think, you know, it's really important for women to be You don't deserve to go through your life scared, and there are so many women that statistically, you know, I think the violent crime statistics, more men are victims of violent crimes, but women fear it. And I think there's there's this responsibility put on women, like stay inside, don't go out at night, you know, lock your doors, this and that, and that's that's all good and well, but we do deserve to go through our lives not terrified. We do deserve to have our own autonomy. We need to learn how to defend ourselves. You know, maybe it doesn't align with your values, but have something to defend yourself. And if it's not something that at least have a taser, you know, have have something that you can uh, because this world that just it continues to kind of spiral down a really dangerous road. And and you do you see a lot of complacency and the people that claim to protect us, you know, the government. I mean, what a joke. What what you're seeing going on? It's it's just a mess. It's so divisive. I think a lot of people are really, uh, really divided and hating on each other. My experience with law enforcement, and it gives you a deep distrust. Now when I you know, see cop cars. I mean some people think, oh I'm safe, you know, depending on your experience. But but it gives you really a deep distrust of the police too, because I've been so let down by them, the people that are supposed to be protecting. And it is a joke, it's a joke, and it's said, I'm so glad you said that. I'm actually so glad you said that. And I'm going to actually ask the listeners to go back and listen to some of my episodes on you know BLM Police Brutality and Sure, while I definitely have you know, feelings about how people act in the streets when they're mad, because I'm always asking people to look at issues from both sides. So you just pointed out how divisive we are. And I like to think critically, and I want everyone to understand what Victoria has said, because for some people, they might look at you and they say, here's a young white woman and she's saying, now, I don't trust the police because I've had this experience, which I think is absolutely valid. I get that, and people might be more amenable to hearing it from you. But sometimes when black people say, it feels like complaining. So you have to understand Victoria has just told this story. She's expressed it so well. When you've had a number of negative encounters with law enforcement, and these are the people who are sworn, constitutionally sworn to serve and protect you, and then they don't and you feel abandoned and you don't feel heard, And yeah, of course that help people see things a bit from the other side of the spectrum. This is why so many people feel a diste and distrust for police. You have many, many negative encounters, right or wrong, good or bad. You know, each circumstance is different. It does create a distrust, and I feel like that's another deliberate thing that's going on. I feel like the police are deliberately being hombled. People want us in chaos, They want us to feel fear. They don't want us to trust law enforcement, because who will you trust if you don't trust law enforcement, So you're gonna trust bigger government, or you're gonna have to take matters into your own hands, which increases the chaos level. Right. I feel this is all controlled chaos and the fact that you have no one to turn to to get restitution for what you experienced, so that this is a two horrible crimes that have happened to you and your family and everyone has looked away. Has the police department? Have you lodged any complaints with the police department? Have you lodged any complaints with corporate Hyat? I certainly have, so a Hyatt admitted, And I mean what you said is very on. I hate to say I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but I think more so of a of a critical thinker, because in a bit of a conspiracy theorist. But it's something is going on that does feel like a bit of a conspiracy and it's it's terrifying. I mean, that's tapi right there, Victoria. Before I let you go on, because I want to tell you that there's the difference between being conspiracy theorists and recognizing patterns. And you, as a thinking adult, have the ability to recognize patterns. So this is another thing that people do, right They when you recognize patterns, they call you a crazy person. You're you don't have a tempoil hat and you're not saying aliens did this to you with their patterns that you that your thinking brain is pointing out. You don't have to apologize for it, of course, of course, yeah, it's it's uh it's been a nightmare. It has been a nightmare, and uh it it has definitely, you know, psychologically, physically, emotionally, there's not one part of me that this hasn't touched. And uh, you know, I think one thing that we can do, going back to what you said about vic not signing the paperwork and getting you see it all the time. I mean, I work with a lot of young women, I mentor them. I work with several advocacy groups, and one common denominator that you see people tend to and it's also a curious thing that, you know, being robbed of my belongings. It seemed to be it's like, well, you know, at least you weren't sexually assaulted, or at least you weren't. I mean, how can you? Why are we It's highly violating and you can't compare. I mean one trauma, oh well, that trauma is not as bad as this trauma. You know, I would have I would have liked the fighting chance. I would like to look the cowards square in the face. But that's exactly what these people are. They're cowards and they rely on uh ripping people of all their belongings when they're not around to fight back. And you see a lot of anybody watching this if you have been a victim of any crime or what assault or whatever it may be. I think there's a lot of victim shame, and there's a lot of victim shaming. I've even heard I remember one guy I was I was speaking with and it you know, the experience being a woman can feel pretty infuriating sometimes because you're just you know, you're expected. You know, if you're not meeting expectations, or you react or you show too much. Oh you're hysterical, and it's just it seems like you just can't get it right, you know, not to get into the whole America Farira speech, which I love, but it's like it's tough, you know, it's tough. I think all the women were just I was standing up pumping the air with my fist when I heard that speech in Barbie. But you know, it seems like as a woman, like, oh, these days we can do it all right, we're you know, we're all powerful women. But then there's still these expectations if you react or what could you have done differently to you know, prohibit this. So if you're watching this and you know somebody who's been attacked or what, please don't try to say, well, you know, I was told if you had had men with you, this wouldn't have happened. What if I had men with me? How could you not? That's not the thing to say to someone. Or maybe if you had just not gone on the subway, you know, you should know the subway is not or you shouldn't have left, you know, I think that victims and I yes, these are things that i've these are things I've heard, and you know, and I've heard there was a young woman I knew who you know, had been I think a little bit tipsy and was taken advantage of. And there's still that they will U should well, yes, there's circumstantial awareness. You don't need to and you know, not to say that she bears any responsibility for somebody else's vile actions. But you want to be circumstantially aware, right, you have to know people. There's some horrible people, right, and we don't want to, you know, if we're gonna have some drinks, maybe be in good company or be at home with our cat or you know. But but there's a lot of victim blaming still, even in this supposed woke culture we're in where everybody so woke and so emotionally aware, I see a lot of nastiness, and I see a lot of victim blaming, and I see a lot of victims terrified to retaliate. And I think that's the first step of these perpetrators having power, because we we hand them that power on a silver platter by not fighting back. So I'm I'm a fighter, even if you know, ends don't justify the means. I did get my money back for the stay at the hotel. They immediately admitted guilt with that. They paid my parking to it. But they handed me over to this insurance company and who's just given me the big run around. It first was we're going to pay back total reparations of what you lost. Then she needed exact pictures of every item that was law. It was always these new hoops to jump through. She needed invoices and receipts. You know, I don't know about you, Kira, but I don't travel with receipt I don't save receipts of every single thing that I have, you know, And I get why insurance needs that. I mean, I understand the business of it. But it was every time I was promised something and that promise was kind of chipped away at So then I was gonna and when I could meet her demands. I'm one of those that if you ask me something, I'm gonna try to make it happen. So I stayed up round the clock, getting together invoices, photos, receipts, contacting vendors, you know, family of passed away designers that maybe had something in the worth of the garment. I pulled together two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of proof of what I have been stolen. That's tangible proof right there, receipts, track records, screenshots of texts and emails. I went all out then ghosted, completely ghosted, and I got the sinking feeling at that point, I'm not going to get a reparation from this, and I you know, I kept following up with the insurance agent and she said, you know, she said, well, we can't do the full two hundred and fifty thousand, we can do fifty thousand dollars worth of Well, well, why didn't you tell me this at the very beginning? So it was just always when she finally got back to me, it was a less than amount. And then as of a recently, I mean, I follow up with her and she's just completely forgotten I exist, or you know, intentionally forgotten. And it's sad, you know, as somebody who loves justice, and I would hope most people love justice, I don't know if we're so duped by whatever that we don't even like to see justice happen for wrongdoings. I mean, there's a difference between having a forgiving spirit and then also just demanding what's right and I, you know, again, like I said, I didn't deserve all of this. I deserve my business back. I deserve and I'm not gonna get my peace of mind back. But having that little something, finding a few of my things, even getting a little something of a reparation from multi billion dollar corporation that obviously doesn't care, that would mean the world a small business I like an entrepreneur like me, And uh yeah, and it's I know I went off on a tangent there a little bit, but it's it's it's just it's sad. It's sad, and it destroys your you know who, what are you if you don't I think everybody wants to have some semblance of peace, right and when you get that piece taken away from you and you feel like now now, I will go on trips and I'll just wear My mom likes to at least she can still laugh about it. She calls me Steve jobs because I'll pack like a black shirt and black shorts and I won't pack anything else because I'm so paranoid of getting robbed. I don't even want to pack luggage when I go places anymore. Like I'm that in my head you know, I'm looking around, I wonder and and it makes you look and feel crazy even though you're not, you know, So it's it's been tough. It's been tough. So that is the thing about crimes like this. You continue to be a victim long after the actual act is done. You are looking over your sh your peace of mind is destroyed. The way you prepare for work is ten times more difficult, right of course, just trying to you know, deal with the you know, medical issues, medical bills, replacing the equipment. The list goes on and on. And what you said about America Ferrera's speech and Barbie, you know, and a lot of people. What I find to be interesting about that is that is that even the people, because there's a lot of I'm in right wing media and so there was a lot of people they didn't like the Barbie movie and right wing media, and I loved it. And it's funny because a lot of people, a lot of the people complaining about that movie, they pointed to that speech and they were like, oh and just so here's another like feminist, whiny speech. I'm like, you're absolutely right, Victoria. See you can't kind a woman say what I say about her experience as a woman. That isn't hysterical, that isn't whining, that isn't angry, that you don't label as annoying, Like, there's no way we can come to you with our legitimate issues about what the genuine struggles, the genuine challenges of being an American woman in this day and age. There's no way we can present it to you that it's not crazy. I mean, here you are, You've been attacked, You're you're you're frightened, you're disturbed, you're you're traumatized. And the question the police ask you is, ma'am, are you drunk? No, I'm freaking upset, right. I packed me and then party, which is a huge violation. That is a very intimate violation. By the way that I hate when people try to label that, oh, you just had something stolen. No, this is someone coming into your life and peeking into your life, like pulling back a curtain looking at your stuff. Like, think about it, folks, how you you don't like someone looking over your shoulder when you read you know, have you ever gone into a room and felt like somebody was in here and took something that you know is supposed to be there, even if it's just your family member. That is a very unsettling feeling that it's a it's absolutely an intimate violation to have your personal belongings stolen. Almost think maybe I'm crazy. I almost think that's worse than that guy pushing you down the stairs. You were saying that because that guy I got hauled off and you looked him in the eye. These guys walked away with what you worked so hard for, your family, sacrifice so hard for. This is what makes you a living. They did nothing to earn it, and they stole it from you, and then the police had the nerve to treat you like you were the problem in this situation. I'm absolutely infuriated for you. Thank you, thank you, And you know what, if I had just gotten one reaction like that that night, even from you know, by stead checking in and out of their rooms and getting their breakfast. I mean I'd been sitting there all night, filling out my forms, just sobbing and shaking, and it was obvious what was happening. But there were people just going about their day. Not one person, not one person other than my mom or my Nami stop to say are you okay? Are you what happened? You know, obviously I'm not okay, But just even that like here, it's cathartic to see you get charged up for me because I'm like that when when somebody experiences something like this, and it made me think when I'm sitting there and I'm devastated and I'm broken and I'm bruised, and i am just violated from the end. I mean, I in, you know, the worst possible way. I've lost my livelihood. I don't know what I'm going to do next. I have a shoot booking in a couple of days, I don't have a camera, I have people relying on me, you know. But to even hear you say that is a catharsis, And I think a lot of times it's you know, I even found myself after that experience, and that just shows what a negative impact. I feel like every person you see that's cold and hard and mean, I felt some of them maybe are just like that, they're just not great people. But I think a lot of people used to be nice and open minded and think of you know, I mean see the kids running around and they're not you know, you see kids of all different races and whatever, gender is getting along, and then as they get older, the divisiveness happens. And I think it's a lot of programming. It's life pushing people around and it makes them that way. But even after the robbery, there were instances that, like I would see somebody struggling with their and I would be like, well, nobody helped me, so I don't want to help this person, you know, And that's just so unlike me. But I even would, and I hate to admit that, but I would see, you know, or I would instances where I might like smile at someone or strike up a conversation, and I became very like, you know, I'm just gonna look at my phone, I'm gonna be in my bubble. I'm not gonna help this person with you know. And I got to a point though, after seeing all of my clients. I mean, I had one one lady that and I mean, you know, I'm spiritual. I love gees. I'm not a religious person, but I think that the whole thing of Jesus and bodies is good. And I had a client She's like, you know, I have my little prayer group at church and all the ladies club we're praying for you, and we've prayed and we prayed and we prayed, and like, I mean, what a nice thing. I mean, what you know, And I think to have to hear people that were still and you know, they've been through their stuff in life too, so to have people show up and rally around and care, I think it built back my humanity a little bit that I would have lost otherwise, because if people had not been kind and had not been considerate, and clients had not been understanding, there's no telling, you know what I mean, there's no telling. I think we're all just human and we can only be pushed so far. So that that's kind of my takeaway from this is like you you never know what somebody has gone through, and I know you've gone through stuff too, but just just try, just try to be a good human, you know, try try and not be reach out to someone, even if it's just like, hey, I'm thinking about you, or I send up a prayer for you, or can I send you something or do you know? And not made all the difference for me. How you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me. Victoria Henley from cycle nineteen of America's Next Top Model. For an inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. I think it is really it's really sad the law enforcement and a lot of my experience with many of them, except like in my you know, little hometown where they knew me, It've been very sterile and very cold, and I think that's not a good thing. And I think there need to be more. You know, a lot of the women I've dealt with, like at call centers, there was one issue I had and she was like she was showing it, and I didn't take it that she was being emotional. I took it that she cared and she got stuff done. She got my cell phone number, my email address, she was following up with me. She was, you know, passionate, and it's not the thing. I think the thing too of a lot of the far And again I don't really prescribe. I'm very much in the middle, and there's you know, but a lot of the right. I mean, Ben Shapiro was setting Barbie Dolls on fire, and I'm like, dude, you're a grown ass man. What are you doing? What are you doing? What? Oh? But we're emotional, Please excuse our emotions. The biggest scam in history has been you know, am like war and JENNI side, that's not emotion. Anger is not an emotion. That's been the biggest scam in history, let me tell you. But I think that if we had more women in these power positions, right, And I don't believe in extremism or totalitarianism, and I think that we're too much, you know, government is just too big on both ends. But and cops and there's just a lot of crookedness. But I think if we had more women in these positions, I think it would be better for women, and it would be a safer world for women. And I think that I would feel safer because I know in situations that I have had a woman that I can come to and deal with. And those guys mean shame you know, NYPD, I'm gonna tag you in this, just want it comes shame on you. Shame on you, Hi, you place shame on you, insurance companies, shame on you for being bad, for failing at your job and being bad humans. You know, it's a shame. Yeah, I girl, you need to come back on the show because you just like laid out a whole bunch of issues that we could go on and on about. There's a perfect spot to wrap this up, which is you have to try to care. You have to try, and that is it's imperative that you try. It's imperative that you you know, I can completely. I mean I'm feeling the fear and the stress just talking to you, thinking about you out there walking around in the very places that you were victimized, right, you know, And of course absolutely I wouldn't blame you for just ignoring everyone and looking in your phone. And it takes f too still care for people and to still make yourself allow yourself to be vulnerable, vulnerable enough to connect with people. And so I wish you the best with that. Well, here's what I want to do, and I want to thank you, by the way, for sharing your story and for encouraging people still to make that call reach out if you see someone crying in the lobby of a hotel. Don't be afraid to stop and say, are you okay? You've lost nothing? To hopefully to check on that person. It does require a little bit of courage, but please take Victoria's story and internalize that and think, you know, what would I want someone to do for me if I was sitting on the street corner crying, looking distressed. And we've got to be the people to resist this urge to isolate. I believe we're being pushed to do that in a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons. You talked about your clients being so great reaching out and helping you. Is there a way that listeners of this show could offer you some help reach out? Do you have to give us your social media? Drop all that right here? Thank you, Kira, thank you so much. Amya you said it. I mean individual, don't underestimate individual effort. That's all I'm gonna say. You know, Pee, a lot of people think I'm one person. I can't, I can't do this, I can't you know, make really a big den you can, you know. I mean, look at women's suffrage, look at look at so much that's been accomplished, and it was just a few individuals with that fire, so like, yeah, exactly being kind. It takes some courage, but it's worth it. And and my clients like you guys, if you're watching this, you girls, you guys are the best. And thank you so much for for helping me at the lowest point of my life. I still haven't gotten reparations. I've been building back, you know, slowly but surely, but it's been a struggle. So yes, I mean, I you know, don't don't feel like you have to. But if you do have something, it can even be closed that. Like we do pop up charity shows to benefit humane societies and things like that. So if you have clothes maybe like an old prom dress that you're not using, or you have handbags that you're going to donate to Goodwill, we can use this stuff and we do a lot to try to support good causes too. So if you have something that you can send, that would be so appreciated, like you honestly don't know much, and I'll tag you in pictures of whatever we do with it too. But I'm at Victoria Henley. That's H and L E Y on Instagram. My email address one good way to reach me is just backstage pass on iHeartRadio at gmail dot com, which is the podcast I do with the amazing FCB Radio team, And yeah, just drop me, drop me an email, better yet, drop me a message on Instagram. I love connecting with new people. I'd love to be friends with you all in there and don't underestimate, I mean anything, help. So I really appreciate that when you say people send clothes, you mean like dresses or yeah, I mean, you know, I've never been in the position, and it kind of gave me an empathy for people who just literally don't have anything. But I had shorts and a T shirt. What my clothes on my back was what I had. I had all my clothes packed, my personal clothes, you know, for fashion week, you don't go without packing. So I had everything. So I basically was starting from square one, and I didn't have any you know, I had my credit card, but I forgot that I had a duplicate credit card and a purse that got stolen and one of my best friends had given me that person engraved it like with our initials together was and I lost that and it just you know, and I'm a sentimental. I'm kind of I try to hide it. I'm a little machie. Sometimes I'm sentimental. So a lot of that stuff too, you know, had value to me. It had like even if it wasn't, it was a lot of monetary value, but it was that sentimental thing. So it was rough. And after I posted about I wasn't really asking. I didn't. That's funny because I made the post. Basically my post was so unlike me, and people were concerned. People were calling me I don't talk like this, but I basically put what happened, and I said, I quit. I quit. I'm so sorry to people. I'm letting down. I'm gonna find a way to fulfill the obligations, you know. I'm headed to I had been to New York and there's a place called Squire's Castle in Ohio that we do shoots for. There's a like fashion event there, so we actually drove and I stayed with the person in Ohio. That's how I met Darvio. Was through Jackie Burtolette and she's a producer of an great event. Just connects so many creatives, so I stayed with her. We ended up finding a way somehow to like wire money and her old camera she gave me underwear she hadn't used. She was giving me shoes. She is she is the sweetest and she you know, she talks the talk. She really talks that she's kind of we are the world, like, you know, kind of and you see it. You hear a lot of that, but you don't see the walk being walked. But she's that person. She will literally she was taking stuff off of herself and giving it to me. And God, she is just the best. She is the best. And her little family, she has kids and they were in there, like cooking food and just being so nurturing and so warm, and so I think people were very worried about me, and I think that I would have been afraid to ask for help because I'm like, well, I don't want to. And it's one of those things as a woman too, you know, you're kind of reticent, like I don't want to look weak. I don't want to look just because of all these things we've been told and indoctrinated and shamed for, you know, just for daring to exist as women. And I think that I was trying to be stoic, but people could tell I wasn't holding it together. And man, they really. I didn't even ask, They just were like, what's your address? And it wasn't It was different people just saying and so then I kind of got the courage to make a post like, hey, that actually is an idea. If you guys have stuff that you're not using, like old prom dresses and things, and some of those are really nice, and we start people were sending them, and we started using them for shoots and I mean we you know, had that older camera we were using and it turned out well. So we were just kind of peace milling everything back together. So it's kind of like I've had people. I've had people I grew up with. I lost friends. Actually when I did America's Next Top Model and one girl I later connected with, I was like, why did you stop talking to me? And she was like, well, you just went on to so many better things and your life's so glamorous and you're too good for me now. So I want to tell people, if you're watching somebody and you think their life, maybe you know it's easy to present as glamorous. Nobody wants to see me on Instagram crying into my soup. You know, I've had those moments, but i want to tell you know, don't don't don't be that person. Nobody's better than anybody else. We'll just be a good human. That's that's the way to be a good person. So don't ever assume what I do is glamorous. It's not. It certainly hasn't been. Lately. I've had to piece mill my entire business back together. But if it weren't for my amazing mom and amazing clients and people, I mean, even like yourself, like, thank you for giving me a platform to share this. It's actually cathartic. People are like, have you gone to you know, do you go to therapy? And I'm like, I don't need to do that. You know, I'm stubborn, but but it's therapeutic to be able to actually talk openly and have somebody empathize with you, you know. And so yeah, I mean back to that. If you have something that you think I could use, don't be embarrassed. I mean people were sending me T shirts and shorts because my credit cards were shut down. They stole and the credit card people were like, oh, it might be like a month before we get your new and I'm like, oh my god, So I was lost and people were giving me just basic items and it helped. So I'm kind of past the point of taking up like a collection for that. But if you again, or if you want to even get involved with what I do, or if you have something you think we could use, please don't be shy, like reach out. I would just love to love to even hear from you. Yeah, reach out. I think probably the best way is reach out to Victoria on Instagram. That's at Victoria Henley h N l e Y. You know, if you're you're willing to meet a need for her, she can tell you what those needs are, or if you just want to let her know that you're praying for her. Don't be creepy, don't be creepy about it. Just thank you for that. Just it's just for help. She's a beautiful young lady. I've kept you way longer than I promised I would have you. But you're such a joy to talk to and I will be praying for you as well, and I just want to let you know you know I'm and I'm sure you've got you've got your grandma, you've got your mom, You've got really good, solid adults in your life. But I will just tell you this from my point of view. I'm turning fifty in a couple of months, and so I'm a little bit further down the road than you. But I will say that there will be a day when you will look back on this and then will just be a story. It won't be it won't be something that grips you. But if you have access to counseling, I highly suggest it just for that purpose of speaking things out loud. Just to speak it out loud is very powerful. But but make some time to talk about it. Don't keep it inside, because that is where it's going to harden and build up into something that when you get to my end, it'll be real problematic for you. But I you're going to be fine. You're going to be okay, and you're and this is this is going to be and from what I'm hearing from you, it already is a turning point in your life. But you know, the Word tells us that you know, God uses all things, all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. So this too will be something good for you. And we'll make sure that other people hear this story as well. Victoria, thank you so much for coming to the show. I really appreciate it, and everybody, but you can you'll we'll have all of the links to Toria stuff in the show notes, so don't forget. At the very least just go follow her on Instagram. Just give her a follow. That's helpful too for her business. All right, well, thank you everybody. We're gonna say goodbye now and until we meet again. Every once in a while, just stop and listen to yourself. A braiders as that we won't with Maath, then we won't to say oh we got it? Does? No one can dig that, Owen. This is gonna be okay, O braids that we won't with Bay, then we won't with say oh we got it? Does? No one can dig that Owen. Don't may it don't be okay. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk lives Visitors online at fcbpodcasts dot com.