Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes are two well-known American names from completely different worlds, and no public record we found shows a personal or business link between them. Tyra Banks is a model, television host and entrepreneur who created America’s Next Top Model and now runs the ice cream brand Smize & Dream.
Greg Hayes is a business executive who led United Technologies and then RTX, one of the biggest aerospace and defense companies, and who now sits on corporate boards. This guide separates fact from rumor, and every date below was checked on October, 2026.
Key takeaways
- The two are not related, married or business partners, according to every public source we reviewed.
- Tyra Banks is 52 and turns 53 on December 4, 2026.
- Tyra Banks is suing Netflix over the docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, and Netflix is asking a judge to dismiss the case.
- Greg Hayes stepped down as RTX CEO on May 2, 2024, left the RTX board on April 30, 2025, and has since taken a lead role at Phillips 66.
- Many articles repeat errors, such as calling Tyra an America’s Got Talent judge or giving the wrong date for Chris Calio becoming RTX CEO. This page corrects them.
Quick Bio: Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes
| Tyra Banks | Greg Hayes | |
| Full name | Tyra Lynne Banks | Gregory J. Hayes |
| Born | December 4, 1973, Inglewood, California | Around 1960 or 1961 (he was 64 in March 2025) |
| Known for | America’s Next Top Model, The Tyra Banks Show, Smize & Dream | Leading United Technologies and RTX |
| Profession | Model, TV host, producer, entrepreneur | Executive, certified public accountant, board director |
| Education | Immaculate Heart High School, Harvard Business School nondegree program | Economics degree, Purdue University |
| Signature move | Turned a reality show into a global franchise | Reshaped UTC through major deals and the Raytheon merger |
| 2026 status | Netflix lawsuit, ice cream business | Board roles at BD and Phillips 66 |
Tyra was born in Inglewood, California, on December 4, 1973. BD stated Hayes was 64 when it named him to its board in March 2025, and that he holds an economics degree from Purdue and is a certified public accountant.
Which Greg Hayes Are People Searching For?
Greg Hayes is a shared name. One result is Greg G. Hayes, an Australian accounting and finance entrepreneur. The person usually linked to Tyra Banks in searches, and the one covered in this guide, is Gregory J. Hayes, the former RTX CEO. If you came looking for a different Greg Hayes, check the middle initial and the industry first.
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Who Is Tyra Banks?
Early Life and Family
Tyra’s parents are Don Banks and Carolyn London Johnson. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and was scouted early, moving into international modeling as a teenager.
Modeling Breakthrough
Her modeling career set records early. In 1996, she became the first Black woman on the cover of GQ. She was also the first Black woman on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She was a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005.
Early on, she founded a company called Tygirl, Inc. to manage her career and brought her mother to Paris to act as her manager. That business instinct explains much of what came next.
Tyra Banks and America’s Next Top Model
How the Show Began
America’s Next Top Model began in 2003 and ran for 24 cycles. Tyra created it, hosted it and produced it through her company. Netflix later described it as a show that reached a global audience of more than 100 million people at its peak.
The Smize Legacy
The show gave pop culture the word “smize.” Tyra coined it as a playful shorthand for smiling with your eyes. The word became so tied to her that she named her ice cream brand after it.
Criticism and Reevaluation
The show’s legacy is complicated. When old clips went viral in 2020, Tyra wrote on Twitter that she agreed with critics about insensitive moments in the show’s past. Creative director Jay Manuel said the Cycle 4 photo shoot where contestants swapped races made him uncomfortable. That reevaluation set the stage for the Netflix documentary and the lawsuit covered below.
The Tyra Banks Show and Television Career
The Tyra Banks Show, 2005 to 2010
Her daytime talk show ran from 2005 to 2010 and won two Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative. She also co-created the series True Beauty, which aired from 2009 to 2010.
America’s Got Talent
Many articles call Tyra a judge on America’s Got Talent. That is wrong. She was a host of the show. She hosted seasons 12 and 13. This small error appears on several ranking pages, so it is worth getting right if you cite her career.
Dancing with the Stars
Tyra hosted Dancing with the Stars from 2020, then stepped away, with reports saying she wanted more time for her ice cream brand.
Tyra Banks as an Entrepreneur
Tyra’s production company, Bankable Productions, made The Tyra Banks Show, America’s Next Top Model and the 2008 film The Clique. She then moved into products and brands.
TYRA Beauty. She founded the cosmetics brand in 2014. It sells through a multilevel marketing model, with distributors called beautytainers.
Smize & Dream. She launched the ice cream brand in 2021 as SMiZE Cream, then rebranded it as SMiZE & DREAM. It has opened pop-up stores in Los Angeles, Dubai and Sydney. In late 2025, it launched a hot ice cream drink called Hot Mama.
Books. Her young adult novel Modelland reached the New York Times Best Seller list in 2011, and her self-help book Beauty Inside and Out came out in 1998.
Fact vs myth: Did Tyra attend Harvard? Partly. She completed a nine-week certificate program at Harvard Business School called the Owner/President Management Program. It was a non-degree program, so she did not earn a Harvard degree. Saying she has a Harvard degree is inaccurate.
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Tyra Banks and the Netflix Lawsuit
What Happened
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model premiered on Netflix on February 16, 2026. It is a three-part series. Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan directed it.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
Tyra filed a defamation lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court on a Saturday in mid June 2026. She claims only about 16 minutes of her long interview appeared in the series and that clips were stripped of context. One central complaint involves an incident from Cycle 2 involving contestant Shandi Sullivan. She is seeking a jury trial and damages. These are allegations, not findings.
Netflix’s Response
Netflix and EverWonder Studio filed a motion to dismiss on August 14, plus an anti-SLAPP motion. They argue she gave filmmakers control over editing and had no right to approve the finished project. Her lawyers replied that Netflix should release her complete, unedited interview and let viewers compare.
Where It Stands
As of October 22, 2026, we found no ruling. Netflix asked for a hearing on its motion on Friday, October 30. Court schedules change, so check a legal news source for the latest.
Tyra Banks’ Family and Personal Life
Tyra announced the birth of her son, York Banks Asla, in January 2016. He was born through a gestational surrogate. His father is Norwegian photographer Erik Asla, whom she had dated since 2013. People reported their split in 2017. She keeps her private life guarded, so be cautious about sites that claim details beyond this.
Who Is Greg Hayes?
Education and Early Career
Hayes grew up in Williamsville, New York, and played football at Cornell before transferring to Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, where he earned an economics degree in 1982. He then joined Sundstrand Corporation.
Joining UTC
He joined United Technologies in 1999 when it merged with Sundstrand, and served as its chief financial officer from 2008 to 2014. Finance was his path to the top job.
Greg Hayes and United Technologies
He became UTC’s CEO in 2014 and chairman in 2016. Early on, he signaled he would consider major deals, including some above $20 billion. UTC completed the sale of Sikorsky to Lockheed Martin for about $9.1 billion in cash on November 6, 2015.
In 2017, UTC agreed to buy Rockwell Collins at a total transaction value of $30 billion, including debt, with an equity value of $23 billion. The Rockwell deal created Collins Aerospace.
Greg Hayes and the Creation of RTX
In June 2019, UTC announced an all-stock deal to merge with Raytheon, which Bloomberg called the capstone of a dramatic makeover of the company. The merger was completed in April 2020, and Hayes became CEO of the combined company.
RTX combined UTC’s aerospace businesses, Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace, with Raytheon Company. The company adopted the RTX name in 2023.
How Greg Hayes Left RTX: Full Timeline
Many websites get this wrong, so here is the sequence.
The common mistake is saying Calio took over in 2022. In fact, he became CEO in 2024.
Greg Hayes’ Leadership Style and Career
The record points to a finance-minded dealmaker. He is a CPA who rose through finance roles, then repeatedly reshaped the company: sold a helicopter business, bought a major avionics supplier, and merged with a defense giant. Bloomberg described the Raytheon deal as one final masterstroke of dealmaking. That is one columnist’s judgment, but it matches the sequence of events.
What Greg Hayes Does After RTX
He joined BD’s board in March 2025. He has been a Phillips 66 director since July 2022. In May 2026, Phillips 66 appointed him lead independent director. The company had nominated him for another three-year term running to 2029.
Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes: Are They Connected?
No documented connection exists. We searched for the two names together and checked biographies, company filings and news coverage. Nothing links them as relatives, partners or colleagues. The pages that rank for this phrase present them as parallel career profiles, not as people with shared history.
Why do the names appear together? Search engines pair names that trend or get covered in similar roundup articles. A shared surname or shared headline space can also produce the pairing. If you saw a claim of a link, look for a primary source such as a company filing, a court document or a named news report. If none exists, treat it as unverified.
Major Career Achievements of Tyra Banks
- First Black woman on the cover of GQ (1996) and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
- Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005.
- Created America’s Next Top Model (2003), which ran 24 cycles.
- Two Daytime Emmy Awards for The Tyra Banks Show.
- Founded TYRA Beauty (2014) and Smize & Dream (2021).
- Hosted America’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars.
Major Career Achievements of Greg Hayes
- Chief financial officer of UTC (2008 to 2014).
- CEO of UTC (2014) and chairman (2016).
- Oversaw the $9.1 billion Sikorsky sale and the $30 billion Rockwell Collins deal.
- Led the UTC and Raytheon merger that formed RTX in 2020.
- Served as RTX CEO until May 2, 2024, then as executive chairman.
- Lead independent director at Phillips 66 (2026).
Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes in 2026
Tyra Banks. The documentary premiered in February, the lawsuit followed in June, and Netflix filed its motion to dismiss in August. She also keeps expanding Smize & Dream. She turns 53 on December 4.
Greg Hayes. His special advisor role at RTX ended on January 2, 2026. In May, he became lead independent director at Phillips 66, and he remains on the BD board.
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Tyra Banks vs. Greg Hayes: Career Comparison
| Tyra Banks | Greg Hayes | |
| Path | Model to media to brands | Finance to CEO to board director |
| First big break | GQ cover, 1996 | UTC merger with Sundstrand, 1999 |
| Signature creation | America’s Next Top Model | RTX |
| Scale of work | Global TV audience, consumer brands | Global aerospace and defense company |
| Public profile | Celebrity, daily media coverage | Business press and filings |
| Current legal matter | Plaintiff in Netflix defamation case | None found |
| Current role | Founder of Smize & Dream | Director at BD and Phillips 66 |
Two Careers Side by Side: Timeline from 1973 to 2026
| Year | Tyra Banks | Greg Hayes |
| 1973 | Born, December 4 | |
| 1982 | Graduates from Purdue | |
| 1996 | GQ cover | |
| 1999 | Joins UTC through Sundstrand merger | |
| 2003 | America’s Next Top Model launches | |
| 2005 | The Tyra Banks Show begins | |
| 2014 | Launches TYRA Beauty | Becomes UTC CEO |
| 2016 | Son York is born | Becomes UTC chairman |
| 2020 | Hosts Dancing with the Stars | Becomes RTX CEO |
| 2024 | Steps down as CEO, becomes executive chairman | |
| 2026 | Netflix documentary and lawsuit | Lead independent director at Phillips 66 |
What Makes Their Stories Interesting?
Both built influence by controlling the machinery behind the product, not just appearing in it. Tyra owned the show, the production company and the brands. Hayes shaped the structure of one of the largest industrial companies through deals.
Both also show how a legacy gets reexamined: Tyra’s through a documentary, Hayes’s through the question of what RTX became after his tenure. For readers, the lesson is practical. Check dates, check roles, and be wary of articles that blur two very different careers into one story.
FAQ’s About Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes
Are Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes related or connected?
No. No public source shows a family, business or romantic link. They work in different industries, and the names appear together mainly in search results.
Who is Greg Hayes?
Gregory J. Hayes is the former CEO of RTX and of United Technologies. He is now a board director, including as lead independent director at Phillips 66.
Is Greg Hayes still CEO of RTX?
No. He stepped down as CEO on May 2, 2024, left the board on April 30, 2025, and his advisory term ended on January 2, 2026.
Who replaced Greg Hayes at RTX?
Chris Calio became CEO on May 2, 2024.
Why is Tyra Banks suing Netflix?
She alleges the docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model used selective editing of her interview to create a defamatory portrayal. Netflix denies this and has asked the court to dismiss the case.
How old is Tyra Banks?
She is 52 and turns 53 on December 4, 2026.
Did Tyra Banks go to Harvard?
She completed a nine-week Harvard Business School program, the Owner/President Management Program, but did not earn a degree.
Why did Tyra leave Dancing with the Stars?
Reports said she stepped back from screen work to focus on Smize & Dream.
Who is the father of Tyra Banks’ son?
Photographer Erik Asla. York was born through a gestational surrogate in January 2016.
Who are Tyra Banks’ ex-boyfriends?
The best-documented relationship is with Erik Asla, from 2013 to 2017. She keeps her private life guarded, so we do not list unverified names.
What happened between Tyra and Jay Manuel?
Accounts differ. In the 2026 docuseries, Manuel said he was fired after Cycle 18. In 2020, he told Variety he chose to leave after completing his contract. He also said their friendship was strained after he first tried to leave.
Final Thoughts
Tyra Banks and Greg Hayes share a search phrase, not a story. Tyra’s headlines in 2026 center on a Netflix documentary and a defamation case.
Hayes’s center on the end of his RTX tenure and his move into board leadership. Keeping the two separate, and checking each date against a primary source, is the best way to avoid the errors that fill many pages on this topic.
I’m Elyon Marwood, the voice behind BlessWithUs. Writing has always been more than just words for me; it’s a way to share faith, spread hope, and bring light into someone’s day. Through heartfelt blessings, meaningful prayers, and uplifting messages, I create moments that help you slow down, feel at peace, and reconnect with what truly matters. Every piece I write carries a purpose to comfort your heart, strengthen your faith, and remind you that even in the quietest moments, you are deeply guided, loved, and blessed.
