Is Tyra Banks in a Relationship? Her Boyfriend, Father of Her Child & More
Tyra Banks has been in the spotlight for years, and she’ll be looking back on the project that made her a household name, America’s Next Top Model, in a new docuseries for Netflix. Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, peels back the curtain on the show and revisits some of the most shocking moments that aired over the course of 24 seasons.
Along with Banks’ rise to fame, her personal life has also made headlines over the years. The model is currently in a relationship, and also has a child with a longtime ex. Scroll down for everything we know about her love life.
Who is Tyra Banks’ boyfriend?
Banks’ current boyfriend is Louis Bélanger-Martin. They were first spotted together in 2019 and subsequent sightings confirmed their relationship. For the most part, they keep their romance private.
Bélanger-Martin has worked in the business field for years and is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Banks’ ice cream company, SMiZE Cream, which she launched in 2021. He is also the founder of Groupe W, a private investment firm, per LinkedIn.
Since early 2024, Banks and Bélanger-Martin’s main base has been in Australia (they lost their California home to the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025). In April 2025, Banks appeared on Today With Jenna & Friends and opened up about the decision to relocate Down Under.
“I’ve been going to Australia a lot because we were making a lot of our ice cream there in this big facility, doing our recipes,” she explained, referring to he SMiZE and Dream company. “I just fell in love with it. Every time I went back, and went back. And the three countries that eat the most ice cream: America, New Zealand and Australia. So I was like, ‘I’m happy here and they love to eat some ice cream, so, are we going to do this family?’ And we did.”
Does Tyra Banks have a child?
Yes, Banks has one child, a son named York Banks Asla, who was born in January 2016. He is her biological child but was born via surrogate after she struggled on her fertility journey.
Banks and her ex (more on him below) tried to get pregnant via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for a year before turning to surrogacy. They implanted one of their embryos in a surrogate to eventually have their son.
By the time York was 2 years old, he was already speaking Spanish, Norwegian, and English, Banks revealed in a 2018 interview. She also admitted, “I wouldn’t love for him to model, but I wouldn’t tell him, ‘Don’t do it,’ because then he’d do it more. I’m going to support what he wants and just hope it’s not modeling.”
Meanwhile, Bélanger-Martin also has a son with his ex-wife, Valérie Martin Scraire.
Who is the father of Tyra Banks’ child?
The father of Banks’ son is Erik Asla, a Norwegian photographer. They started dating in 2013, but broke up in 2017, about a year after York’s birth.
Michael Buckner/Getty Images
Banks and Asla met on Norway’s version of America’s Next Top Model when he was working on the show, which Banks created, as a photographer and judge in Season 13.
In addition to York, Asla also has three daughters from a relationship before he was with Banks.
Who else has Tyra Banks dated?
Banks has never been married, but she has been linked to a few other men over the years. From 2001 to 2004, she was in a relationship with former NBA player Chris Webber. Then, she dated financier John Utendahl from 2008 to 2011.
In 1996, as her modeling career was taking off, she was briefly romantically linked to Seal.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, Monday, February 16, Netflix
